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ECLECTIC SCHOOL READINGS 

^ THE CONQUEST ^ 

f OF THE t 

OLD NORTHWEST 



t 



■«^'i> 







NEW YORK- CiNCJNNATI • CHICAGO 
__ AME RICAN- book: ' COMPAN''^ 




Class _5 4:i^ __ 

Book -^\g 

Copyright})^ 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



THE CON()Ur:ST OF 



THE OLD NORTHWEST 



AND ITS SEITTEMENT BY AMERICANS 



BY 



JAMES BALDWIN 



Author of "The Discovery of the Old North%vest" " Baldwin's Readers' 
''The Story of Roland" ''Old Greek Stories," etc. 






NEW YORK-:. CINCINNATI •:• CHICAGO 

AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 






THF LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two CoHEs Received 

OCT. 15 1901 


COPVPIOMT 


ENTRY 1 


CLASS <^XXc. No. 


COPY 


« 



Copyright, 1901, by 
AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY. 

Entered at Stationers' Hall, London. 



CONQUEST O. N. W. 



PREFACE 

While every American is familiar with the events con- 
nected with the discovery and colonization of the eastern 
shores of our country, the history of the Old Northwest — 
that magnificent section of our country lying west of the 
Alleghanies and bounded by the Mississippi, the Ohio, 
and the Great Lakes — is comparatively unknown. It 
has a history as varied, as interesting, and as important 
as that of any other portion of the North American conti- 
nent, and yet few persons realize the extent to which the 
events attending its early exploration, its conquest, and its 
settlement have determined the destiny of our country as 
a whole. 

So far as is known to the writer, no attempt has hitherto 
been made to relate the story of these events in a con- 
nected order, free from extraneous details and adapted to 
the comprehension and tastes of younger readers. Park- 
man, in his monumental series of historical narratives, has 
told this story in connection with many others having but 
slight relation to the Old Northwest ; Justin Winsor, in 
his very scholarly volumes relating to the French regime 
in America, has done the same. But the works of these 
writers are too voluminous for general readers, and being 
designed for mature thinkers they fail to be attractive to 
the majority of young people just beginning to acquire a 
taste for historical reading. The author of this volume, 



4 Preface 

while indebted to W'insor and Parkman and many other 
writers for the facts which he relates, has followed his 
own method of telling the story, keeping always in mind . 
as the central thought the discovery and development of \ 
the Old Northwest and its final conquest for freedom and / 
civilization. He has not attempted a complete history, but^ 
rather a connected series of sketches, selecting from the 
very large number of events and incidents that might 
have been related those which seemed to him most neces- 
sary to the interest and the continuous unfolding of the 
narrative. 

Although this volume and its companion, **The Discov- 
ery of the Old Northwest," are each supplementary to the 
other, yet each relates its own story and is complete in 
itself. The one covers a period of two hundred years, 
from Jacques Cartier (i535) to the completion of the 
French colonization of the Old Northwest. The other con- 
tinues the story for another hundred years, ending with 
the last struggle, in that region, between the forces of 
barbarism and civilization (1832) and the completion of 
the American conquest. 



CONTENTS 



HOW THE NORTHWEST WAS LOST TO FRANCE 



The Rival Claimants 

I. English and French . 

The Bounds of the Old Northwest 
The Fur Trade .... 
The Hunting (^iround of the Iroquois 
Looking Westward 
Owners, or Interlopers ? 



n. 

HI. 

IV. 

V. 

VI. 



French Precautions 



I. 

II. 
lU. 
IV. 

V. 
VI. 



Juchereau 
Fort Chartres 
Vincennes . 
The Trespassers 
Joncaire 
Fort Massac 



Bienville de Celoron 

I. On the Allegheny 
II. Down La Belle Riviere 
III. Up the Great Miami . 

CHRISTOrHER GiST 

I. To the Muskingum 
II. At Pickawillany . 

The Key to the Ohio Valley 
I. Legardeur de St. Pierre 



35 
37 
41 

42 

45 



51 
56 



59 
62 



66 



6 ' Contents 

PAGE 

II. Fort Le Rceuf 69 

III. Unexpected Visitors 72 

George Washington 

I. The Wildernes.s Journey -76 

II. The First Encounter 78 

III. Fort Necessity ,81 

IV. Fort Duquesne -83 

V. Braddocic 86 

HOW THE COUNTRY WAS HELD BY ENGLAND 

The Great Conspiracy 

I. The Napoleon of the Wilderness . .... 92 
II. The Massacre at Mackinac ...... 99 

III. The Siege of Detroit 107 

England in Full Possession 

I . Bouquet . . . . . . . . .117 

II. The Last Hope dispelled . . . . . .120 

III. The Last Post given up .121 

A Yankee Traveler 

I. Ambitious Plans . . . . . . . .125 

II. An Early View of the Northwest , . . . .127 

III. Carver's Grant 129 

A Noble Red Man 

I. A Dastardly Deed 132 

II. Lord Dunmore's War . . . . . . -139 

III. Chief Logan's Speech ....... 140 

HOW THE LAND WAS WON FOR FREEDOM 

For Savagery, or for Civilization ? 

The Policy of the English King 145 



Co Jit Lilts 



The Hannibal of the Northwest 

I. The County of Kentucky . 

11. The '' Long Knives " of the Border 

III. The Capture of Kaskaskia . 

IV. " The Grand Door to the Wabash " 
V. The " Hair-buyer General" 

VI. The Winning of Vincennes . 

The Macjna Charta of the Northwest 
I. The Question of Ownership 
II. The Great Ordinance . 



150 
152 
156 
163 
165 
171 



179 
182 



HOW THE WILDERNESS WAS SUBDUED 

Settlers on the Ohio 

I. The First Colony ...... 

II. Losantiville . ....... 

The Conquering White Man 
I. Beyond the Border 
II. Harmar 

III. W^ilkinson . 

IV. St. Clair . 
V. Fallen Timbers 

VI. Greenville . 

The United States in Full Possession 
I. The Surrender of the Lake Posts 
II. '• New Connecticut 

The Territory of Indiana 

I. The Scattered Settlements . 
II. Tecumseh ..... 

III. Tippecanoe ..... 

IV. A Harbinger of Prosperity . 



187 
192 

195 
197 
199 

200 
203 
205 

208 
210 

213 
217 
22 1 



8 Contents 

PAGE 
SUBDUERS OF THE WILDERNESS 

I. The Pioneers 230 

II. A True Hero 234 

The Last Struggle 

I. The Sacs 240 

II. A One-sided Treaty 243 

III. The Removal . . . . . . . .247 

IV. Black Hawk's War 250 

Index 257 



THE CONQUEST 

OF 

THE OLD NORTHWEST 



(C ^^^ :p^ 




Map showing the Old Northwest and its boundaries at the 
present time 



HOW THE NORTHWEST WAS LOST TO 
FRANCE 

THE RIVAL CLAIMANTS 

I. ENGLISH AND FRENCH 

TWO hundred years ago there were but few EngHsh- 
speaking people in North America. Adjoining the 
Atlantic coast, and extending from New Hampshire to 
South Carolina, there were twelve colonies of Englishmen ; 
but in all these colonies taken together there were not so 
many inhabitants as are now contained in a single city 
like Indianapolis, or Milwaukee, or Detroit. There were 
no roads worth speaking of, and the only means of going 
from place to place was by water. Most of the people, 
therefore, lived near the coast or close to some river or 
other stream, and none of the settlements extended very 
far inland. Some of the colonies claimed to possess 
the land from the Atlantic to the Pacific ; but beyond the 
head waters of the larger rivers, as the James and the 
Hudson, the country was unexplored and unknown. 

Hemming the settlements in on the west were tangled 
forests traversed only by hunters and trappers and savage 
red men ; and farther away were rugged hills and ranges 
of mountains which extended northwardly and southwardly 



12 



TJic Rival Claimants 



for hundreds of miles, and seemed to shut off all further 
progress toward the interior. These mountains, now 
commonly known as the Alleghanies, marked the limits 

^^^ of the actual posses- 
sions of the English 
colonies. No Eng- 
lishman had yet ex- 
plored the country 
beyond, and but few 
of the colonists knew 
or cared to know any- 
thing about its extent 
or its resources. 
And yet in those very re- 
gions, shut off as it were by 
impassable mountain barriers, 
were the largest lakes, the 
longest rivers, the richest 
mines, the most fertile lands 
in North America. While 
English explorers were feeling 
their way along the shores of 
the middle Atlantic coast and vainly 
searching for a passageway into the 
The English Colonies interior, men from France had as- 
in 1700 cended the St. Lawrence, discovered 

the Great Lakes, and gained access to these the choicest 
parts of the continent. Later on they had opened another 
way of approach to the same regions through the Gulf of 
Mexico and up the Mississippi; they had taken possession 




The Bounds of the Old Xoiihzucst 13 

of the entire country, for and in tiie name of the French 
king; and they had established, here and there at wide 
distances apart, small settlements of French people and 
trading posts for traffic with the Indians. 

Thus, while the English possessions were confined to 
the comparatively narrow strip of country between the 
sea and the mountains, the region claimed by 
the French crown included more than half of the 
North American continent. New France, as this region 
was called, had no well-defined boundaries ; but it extended 
from Nova Scotia to the Pacific Ocean, and from the 
borders of Hudson Bay to the Gulf of Mexico. The 
northern portion, which embraced the valley of the St. 
Lawrence, the Great Lakes, and the unexplored territory 
beyond, was called Canada ; the other part, which was 
watered by the Mississippi and its tributaries, and extended 
from the Alleghany Mountains to an unknown distance 
westward, was known as Louisiana. One would naturally 
suppose that in a country owned by France, and having so 
boundless an extent, there would be many French-speaking 
people. But it was not so. Few as the English colonists 
were, they still outnumbered all the French inhabitants 
of New France. Why so vast a region should be so 
sparsely settled we shall understand as our story proceeds. 



II. THE BOUNDS OF THE OLD NORTHWEST 

With the map of the United States before us, let us 
imagine ourselves standing on the summit of one of the 
Alleghanies near Pittsburg and looking westward. Directly 



14 The Rival ClaiDiauts 

in front of us, and extending to the distant Mississippi, lies 
the region now occupied, as our geographies tell us, by 
the North Central states of the Union. When the French 
owned this region it had no distinctive name of its own, 
but was simply a part of Canada or of Louisiana — or, more 
broadly speaking, of New France, just as it is now a part 
of the United States. At a later period, because it was 
the most northwesterly of the regions occupied by white 
men, it was known as the Northwest. When the go\ern- 
ment of the United States was formed and it became 
necessary to designate each portion of our country by some 
distinctive title, it was called the Territory Northwest of the 
River Ohio. In our own day, when the true Northwest is 
thought of as being in far Washington or farther Alaska, 
it is the custom to speak of this more ancient region as 
the Old Northwest. With the map still before us, 
let us trace the boundaries of this region and try to gain 
some idea of its extent and geographical features. 

You will observe that nearly all of the streams which 
flow down the western slopes of the Alleghanies find their 
way sooner or later into a single great river, the Ohio. 
From the place where the Ohio is formed by the meet- 
ing of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, you can 
trace its course in a southwesterly direction to the Mis- 
sissippi. In the old French days it was the only road 
through the fertile valley which it drains and enriches ; 
and yet it was seldom visited and was but imperfectly 
known. The Indians called it, as it is called to-day, the 
Ohio, or the Beautiful River. By the French it was 
known as La Belle Riviere, and was sometimes loosely 



The Bounds of tJie Old Nort Invest 1 5 

referred to as the River of the Iroquois. For fifty years 
after its discovery it was regarded as a much smaller 
stream than the Wabash, of which it was supposed to 
be a tributary. And yet the voyageur or woods ranger 
who descended it in his canoe found that it was a long 
journey from the river's source to its mouth ; and not 
until he had floated and paddled between its banks for 
more than nine hundred miles did he emerge into the 
broader and stronger stream of the Mississippi. 

With your eyes still on the map, observe closely the 
other natural boundaries of the region partly encircled 
by the Ohio. On its west lies the greatest of North 
American rivers, known variously to the French as the 
Buade, the Conception, the Colbert, and the Mississippi. 
On its north, completely hemming it in, are the Great 
Lakes. From the point where the Ohio flows into 
the Mississippi, let us follow the latter northwardly toward 
its source. We observe on our left the mouth of the 
Missouri, to which King Louis XIV. gave the name St. 
Philip ; on the right are many streams, the chief of which 
are the Illinois and the Wisconsin. And now, as we 
continue to ascend the great river, we pass through the 
beautiful expansion known as Lake Pepin, we leave the 
St. Croix on our right, and arrive at the Falls of St. 
Anthony, the site of the present city of Minneapolis. A 
few miles above this point we turn aside into the Rum 
River which we follow to its source in the Mille Lacs. 
Then by the shortest route we make our way by land to 
the western extremity of Lake Superior. Our course is 
next eastward through the entire length of that great 



1 6 TJic Rival Claimants 

inland sea. We descend the beautiful strait known as 
St. Mary's River and emerge into the upper waters of 
Lake Huron. Through the middle of this lake we trace 
our course southward to the St. Clair strait and onward 
to the Detroit. From the head of Lake Erie we go 
as straight as may be to the point, near its foot, where 
now stands the city of Erie. A short journey overland, 
where once was a favorite portage, and we arrive at a 
small stream called French Creek, a tributary of the 
Allegheny. It is easy now to descend to our starting 
place, where the Ohio has its beginning. 

The course which we have followed marks approxi- 
mately the boundaries of the Old Northwest ; the lines 
on the map which indicate that course represent a dis- 
tance of nearly three thousand miles. The region in- 
closed by them has an area almost equal to that of the 
twelve English colonies of which we have been speaking. 
It is a good deal larger than the German Empire; it 
is twice as large as Great Britain and Ireland taken 
together, and more than ten times the size of the king- 
dom of Holland. It includes the territory from which 
have been formed five great states, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, 
Michigan, and Wisconsin, together with a small portion 
of Minnesota. Here, at the present time, are the sources of 
very much of the wealth and power of our country. Here 
are the homes of many millions of intelligent and happy 
people. 

At the beginning of the eighteenth century there was 
little in all this region to indicate that it was to be the 
seat of future republics. Wild forests, tangled under- 



The Fur Trade 1 7 

woods, boundless prairies, vast solitudes, occupied the 
places now green with wheat fields and rustling corn, or 
noisy with busy traffic. Savage red men wan- 
dered at will through the woods and along the 
watercourses, hunting and fishing and waging war with 
their neighbors. Although the French had held pos- 
session of the country for nearly a century, yet they 
had made no effort to colonize it or civilize it. Here 
and there, by the shore of a lake or on the banks of 
some river, there was a settlement of French-speaking 
people living there in quiet contentment, and subsisting 
upon the products of the forest and their little gardens. 
There were such settlements at Kaskaskia and Cahokia 
in the Illinois Country, and later at Vincennes on the 
Wabash. At Mackinac, at the Sault Sainte Marie, and 
at Detroit were important posts for carrying on trade 
with the Indians ; and at each of these places there was 
a small fort garrisoned by soldiers from France. In the 
heart of the wilderness, and at great distances apart 
were other places — solitary log huts, hunters' camps, or 
temporary stockades — where the French language was 
heard and where fur traders and voyageurs occasionally 
found shelter. All else was an unbroken wilderness. 



III. THE FUR TRADE 

The one great business of the country, in fact of all 
New France, was fur trading, and in that business white 
men and red were alike interested. Indian hunters and 
French coureurs dc bois ranged the woods and explored 

CONg. O.N.W. — 2 



i8 



TJic Rival Claimants 



the watercourses in search of peltries which they bartered 
to French traders for the necessities and luxuries of savage 
life. Rich cargoes of furs were every year sent down 

the Mississippi or through 
the lakes and the St. 
Lawrence, to be carried 
finally to France. There 
they usually brought good 
prices, and added not a 
little to the king's reve- 
nues and to the wealth of 
the favored few who con- 
trolled the business under 
his sanction. At times, 
however, the quantity of 
furs was so great that the 
markets were glutted, and 
the hat makers and other 
dealers would not buy all 
that were sent ; and then not only the merchants and 
others directly engaged in the trade, but the whole prov- 
ince, suffered from the consequent depression of business. 
The king and his counsellors tried many plans for the 
regulation of the traffic in New France. At first the con- 
trol of the country and the monopoly of trade were vested 
in a company of merchants and speculators known as the 
Hundred Associates. At a later period a law was enacted 
which forbade any one to buy or sell or have dealings with 
the Indians without first obtaining a license from the gov- 
ernment or' its agents. The licenses were limited in num- 




" Which they bartered to French traders " 



The Fur Trade 1 9 

bcr, and were sold at })rices ranging from one thousand to 
eighteen hundred francs. Although they were good for 
only a year and a half, and the holders of them were 
allowed to use only one or two canoes, yet the profits 
were large, and licenses might be easily renewed. 

This law, if it had been rigidly enforced, would have 
limited the fur trade to a few favored persons. There 
were numbers of young men, however, to whom the 
wild free life of the forest offered the most tempting 
attractions, and they refused to forego its pleasures and 
the profits of successful trade. They therefore betook 
themselves to the woods and became lawless coureurs de 
bois, hunting and trapping, and trading with the Indians, 
and never thinking of license. Indeed, it is said that at 
one time there was hardly a family in Canada that had 
not at least one son in the woods. Severe laws were 
passed to restrain and punish these reckless coureurs ; 
but how were such laws to be enforced when everybody 
disregarded them } Even the merchants who furnished 
the culprits with goods, and the officers of the king, 
whose duty it was to regulate the business of the country,^ 
secretly sympathized with the law-breakers. The illegal 
traffic in furs increased from year to year, and the license 
system proved a failure. 

The king at last decided upon a new plan. He commis- 
sioned one M. Oudiette to collect the royal revenues from 
New France, and gave to him the sole right to carry across 
the ocean all the beaver skins that were collected in the 
colony. Any person might hunt or trap or buy or sell as 
he chose, but all furs that were sent to France must first 



20 TJic Rival C/aimants 

be brought to Oudiette. One fourth part of the furs thus 
brought in were put aside for the king, and Oudiette paid 
for the rest at a fixed price. The number of beaver skins 
offered to him was enormous, but he was obhged to take 
them all. The result was that poor Oudiette was ruined. 
A new fashion of wearing very small hats had come into 
vogue in Paris, and there was no great demand for beaver. 
He could not dispose of his furs at any price. 

Similar ventures were tried in succeeding years by other 
merchants, but the only men who profited by them were 
the hunters and trappers on the one hand, and 
the king and his favorites on the other. At 
length still another plan was adopted. A hundred and 
fifty merchants were encouraged to form a company for 
the sole control of the trade. A ship and a loan of seven 
hundred thousand francs were obtained from the king, and 
the company was required to buy at about half price all 
the furs that were brought in by the collectors of revenue. 
The new company fared as badly as had Oudiette and his. 
successors ; for not being able to sell their goods the 
unlucky merchants were forced to burn in one year more 
than four hundred thousand pounds of beaver. After 
seven years of failure the company was disbanded, and 
another was formed which conducted the business with 
but little better success. It was plain that there was mis- 
management somewhere ; the cause of the trouble was in 
the laws which had been enacted for the control of the trade, 
— laws which placed everything in the hands of a monop- 
oly and provided a revenue for the king by robbing his 
subjects. 



TJic Fur Trade 



21 



In the meanwhile the English had learned that large 
profits might be derived from the fur trade and from traffic 
with the Indians. As early as 1670 an association of 
noblemen and London merchants had incorporated the 
Hudson's Bay Company to w^hich was given the monopoly 
of trade in the far North. In most of the twelve colonies 
also, there were men who made a busi- 
ness of buying peltries from trappers 
and Indians and shipping them to 
England. The great forests which 
bordered the settlements on the 
Avest abounded in fur-bearing ani- 
mals ; and the savages whose homes 
were in those wilds very soon 
learned that beaver skins could be 
exchanged for luxuries that were 
otherwise beyond their reach. 

Among all the colonists the 
Dutch-English at Albany 
were the best situated for 
carrying on this traffic. 
They had friendly rela- 
tions with the five nations 
of Iroquois Indians whose 
homes were in the region between the Great Lakes 
and the Hudson River; and with these they very early 
established a profitable trade. They furnished the Iro- 
quois with firearms, encouraged them in their hostility 
to the French, and looked quietly on while these savages 
wrought destruction and terror among the feebler tribes 




' They very early established a profitable 
trade " 



22 TJic Rival Claimants 

in the West. In return, their savage alhes brought in 
the furs and other forest products which their country 
afforded, and bartered them for strong drink, for more 
firearms, and for the hatchets, knives, and trinkets so 
dear to the Indian's heart. 

The Dutch-English traders had another advantage which 
they were not slow to discover. Of all the colonies. New 
York alone — if the French were only out of the way — 
might have easy access to the Great Lakes, and through 
them to the boundless regions of the Northwest. No 
mountain barriers, as in the case of the colonies farther 
south, debarred her from communication with the unex- 
plored West. Why might not the entire fur trade of the 
lake country be made to pass through Albany and New 
York instead of going to Montreal and Quebec .'* 

The Dutch-English traders dared not go openly among 
the western Indians and compete w^ith the French for their 
trade ; but they found means to send other red men into 
the Northwest to tempt the natives to send their peltries 
to Albany. The Iroquois, who had always hated and 
opposed the French, became the middlemen between the 
tribes on the upper lakes and these Enghsh traders. The 
latter were not controlled by any monopoly, they were not 
obliged to divide profits with the king, and therefore they 
could afford to pay much higher prices for furs than had 
ever been paid by the French. They could also afford to 
sell their guns, knives, beads, blankets, and ** fire water " at 
lower prices. The shrewd Iroquois soon learned to take 
advantage of this state of things. They bought furs from 
the lake Indians and sold them to the Albany traders at 



The Jlinitino- (i rounds of the Iroquois 



23 



English prices ; then they carried the goods which they 
had received in barter to Canada, and sold them to the 
French traders at French prices, making a profit by each 
transaction. 



IV. THE HUNTING GROUNDS OF THE IROQUOIS 

By their wars with the neighboring tribes the Iroquois 
had made themselves 
the masters of a large 
part of the western 
country. They had 
scattered and de- 
stroyed the Fries, 
whose home was on 
the south shore of 
the lake that bears 
their name ; and 
such was the dread 
in which the Iroquois 
were held that almost 
the whole region be- 
tween that lake and 
the Ohio River was 
deserted and left a 
savage wilderness. 
Only the bravest 
hunters and maraud- 
ing bands of Shaw- 
nees dared to venture thither 




Nowhere were there any human habitations " 



Herds of buffaloes roamed 



among the hills, bears and wolves lived undisturbed in the 



24 TJic Rival Claimants 

thick woods, and nowhere were there any human habita- 
tions. From the Hudson to the Mississippi and from the 
Great Lakes to the head waters of the Potomac the dread 
of the conquering Iroquois was felt. Although their 
homes were in New York, these scourges of the wilderness 
seemed everywhere present ; and they claimed the entire 
region between the Illinois Country and the Alleghany 
Mountains as their own by right of conquest. 

The Hurons and Ottawas along the shores of the upper 
lakes had suffered much from the cruel Iroquois, who had 
driven them from their ancient homes and slaughtered 
their people. When La Motte Cadillac, with fifty settlers 

and fifty soldiers, besran to build a fort and 
1701 
^ 'found a permanent post at Detroit, these Indians 

besought him to protect them from their inveterate foes. 

Cadillac kindly assured them that he would stand as a wall 

between them and the Iroquois; and he promised that in 

due time they should have vengeance, and he would help 

them drive their enemies from the land. 

The Iroquois, hearing of this and knowing that the 

French had really built a fort at Detroit, were much 

alarmed ; for they feared that Cadillac would try to carry 

out his promise and would invade their Ohio hunting 

grounds. They therefore held a council with agents of 

the English from New York, and prayed that the king of 

England would help them. The Dutch-English traders 

felt now that the time was near at hand when they could 

secure a large share of the fur trade in the Northwest; 

others of the colonists had heard of the fertile lands and 

the abundance of game in the country beyond the Alle- 



Looki)io^ Westward 25 

ghanies, and were eager to get possession of that rich 
region. And so the English were not long in making a 
treaty with the Iroquois, promising them such aid as they 
were able to give against any possible encroachments by 
the French. 

A deed was drawn up in due form, and signed by the 
sachems of the five Iroquois nations. By this deed the 
savages ceded " unto our souveraigne Lord, King 
William the Third," and indirectly to the colony 
of New York, the whole of their beaver hunting grounds, 
including the region from Lake Ontario to Chicago and 
from Lake Erie to the Ohio River. This territory was 
described as being about eight hundred miles long, and 
four hundred miles wide, and included not only Detroit, 
but several other posts and small settlements actually 
belonging to and occupied by the French. Thus the Eng- 
lish, in return for vague promises of protection, secured 
from the Iroquois the nominal right to much the greater 
part of the country now known as the Old Northwest. 



V. LOOKING WESTWARD 

In the meanwhile, the colonies south of New York had 
also begun to look westward. It was remembered in 
Virginia that King James I. had given to that colony, 
nearly eighty years before, a charter which described its 
boundaries as extending " up into the land throughout from 
sea to sea west and northwest." That the king had the 
right to grant this charter there could be no dispute, for had 
not John Cabot, sailing in an English vessel, discovered 



26 The Rival ClaitJiants 

the entire eastern coast of North America many years 
before it was visited by any other nation ? And did not 
this discovery give to England the possession of all the 
lands westward ? 

It is related that Governor Berkeley of Virginia sent 
out a company of explorers to find the place of " the 
ebbing and flowing of the water on the other 
side of the mountains, in order to the discovery 
of the South Sea." These men traveled sixteen days 
through the forest, and on the seventeenth saw from 
the summit of one of the Alleghanies ** a glimmering 
light as from water." This water, which was probably 
the river now called the Great Kenawha, they supposed 
to be a bay, possibly of the Pacific Ocean, possibly of a 
lake held by the French "who had seated themselves in 
the back of Virginia." Without descending the mountain 
slope to make further discoveries, they contented them- 
selves with cutting the king's name on some trees, and 
then hurried back to tell the governor what they had seen. 
This expedition, if indeed there is any truth in the story, 
was made at about the time that the French were begin- 
ning to explore the great rivers of the Northwest; and 
when the colonists, several years later, revived their 
claims to the ownership of the lands, the story of these 
early Virginian explorers was related to prove that Eng- 
lishmen and not Frenchmen were the true discoverers of 
that region. 

Forty-five years after Governor Berkeley's feeble attempt 
to probe the secrets of the western wilderness another ex- 
pedition was fitted out for a similar purpose by Governor 



L ookiug Wl 'stzua rd 2 7 

Spotswood of Virginia. A company of fifty persons, the 
governor himself being one, set out from WilUamsburg, 
with pack horses and camp equipage, to discover a route 
through the mountains to the great western lakes. For 
thirty-six days, moving very leisurely, the explorers fol- 
lowed the windings of the James River until they reached 
its " very head where it runs no bigger than a man's arm, 
from under a large stone." They crossed the Blue Ridge 
and discovered the Shenandoah, ** a large river flowing 
west." There the governor buried a bottle in which was 
a paper whereon he had written that he took possession of 
all that region in the name of King George of England. 
The company had a good dinner, drank the king's health, 
and fired off their guns ; and then, thinking they had 
gained sufficient glory, returned to Williamsburg. 

The governor was so highly pleased with his little ex- 
pedition that he caused to be made for each of his com- 
panions a little golden horseshoe on which was engraved 
a Latin motto signifying, "Thus we swear to cross the 
mountains ; " and each of the brave explorers was honored 
with the title of *' Knight of the Golden Horseshoe." The 
king, too, was pleased, and he made the governor a real 
knight and called him Sir Alexander Spotswood. 

More important than all this, howevei*, was the note of 
warning which Spotswood afterward sent to the English 
Lords of Trade : ''The British plantations are in a manner 
surrounded by the French with the numerous nations of 
Indians settled on both sides of the lakes. They may not 
only engross the whole skin trade, but may, when they 
please, send out such bodies of Indians on the back of 



28 TJic Rival Claimants 

these plantations as may greatly distress his Majesty's 
subjects here." And he ends by urging the government 
to make settlements on the lakes and to fortify the passes 
in the mountains, saying that he, himself, is ** ready to 
undertake this project if his Majesty thinks fit to approve 
of it." 

VI. OWNERS, OR INTERLOPERS ? 

While the French were still groping among the inlets 
and bayous about the mouth of the Mississippi, and trying 
to find a suitable place for a settlement, an incident hap- 
pened which persuaded them that England was already 
plotting to seize upon that part of the country. From 
the harbor at Biloxi in what is now the state of Mississippi, 
Le Moyne de Bienville, a young French officer, had set 
out to explore the lower reaches of the great 
river. With five men he made his way overland 
to the point where the city of New Orleans now stands. 
There the party embarked in two canoes and dropped 
slowly down the stream, examining the low, muddy banks, 
and seeking a suitable spot for the building of a fort. 
Suddenly as they were passing the bend known ever since 
as English Turn, they met an English sailing vessel, 
armed with ten guns, that was slowly making its way 
against the current. 

Bienville, nothing daunted, hailed the ship and demanded 
to know by what right it was thus sailing in waters belong- 
ing to King Louis of France. The captain answered that 
if this were indeed the Mississippi, he was not trespassing 
on the French possessions, but only entering the province 



Owners, or Interlopers? 



29 



of Carolina, which extended from the Atlantic to the 
Pacific and embraced quite an extent of land on both 
sides of that river. He added that he had been sent 
out by Daniel Coxe, the proprietor of Carolina, to find 
the Mississippi and select a good place on its banks for 
the settling of a colony. He wished also, on his own 




" Bienville, nothing daunted, hailed the ship" 



account, to ascend to the country of the Chickasaws, 
where he hoped to buy a number of Indian slaves. He 
had sailed into this stream thinking that it might be the 
river that he was seeking, and yet he was fearful it might 
be some other. 

The shrew^d Frenchman assured him that he had missed 
his way. "The Mississippi is much farther w^est," said 
he ; " and this is quite another stream, wholly within the 



30 The Rival Claimants 

possessions of France. A few leagues above this place we 
have many flourishing settlements and a strong fort for 
their protection. If you will be warned by me you will 
turn back and not venture farther into our domains, where 
you will surely be dealt with as a trespasser." 

The English captain, who had already been doubtful of 
his course, was very easily deceived. He asked Bienville 
for further information about the coast and the various 
landmarks that would guide him to the Mississippi, all of 
which the Frenchman cheerfully gave from his ready 
imagination. Then the captain ordered the ship to be 
turned about, and the Englishmen were soon sailing with 
the current back toward the Gulf ; and we hear no more 
of Daniel Coxe's scheme to colonize the valley of the 
Mississippi. 

The French quite naturally became suspicious of every 
movement made by the English, and especially of every 
movement that pointed westward. The very presence of 
the English colonies along the Atlantic coast was regarded 
as an intrusion upon territory which ought to belong to 
France. For had not Verrazano and Ribaut, sailing 
under the French flag, discovered the entire eastern coast 
of North America, and thereby made France the owner of 
the whole continent from Florida to the northern ocean } 
The English, they said, were interlopers, and the claims 
which they based upon Cabot's discoveries were of no 
force ; they would have been driven out of the country 
long ago had not the king of France been a lover of peace 
and loath to make trouble with his neighbors. 



Oivncrs, or hitcrlopcrs ? 3 1 

The English replied by again calling attention to Cabot's 
voyages, which were made more than a quarter of a 
century before Verrazano had sighted the coast of Carolina. 
His discoveries had given to England not only the coast, 
but the interior. "Therefore," said they, "the lake regions 
are ours, and the Mississippi is ours; and these tres- 
passing Frenchmen, who are the real interlopers, must be 
driven out." 



FRENCH PRFXAUTIONS 

I. JUCHEREAU 

AS the years passed, each nation began slowly to pro- 
vide defenses against any possible encroachment 
upon its possessions. The French built a fort on the 
Niagara River to make the English understand that the 
approaches to the Northwest would be protected. The 
English, to offset this, built a fort at Oswego and attracted 
thither a great deal of the Indian trade that would other- 
wise have gone down to Montreal. .The French fortified 
their posts at Detroit and Mackinac to guard against any 
intrusion in the region of the upper lakes. They strength- 
ened their friendship with the Miamis about La Salle's old 
fort on the St. Joseph, so as to protect the portage at 
South Bend and make it difficult for an enemy to approach 
their Illinois settlements by that favorite route. Near the 
head of Green Bay, close by the Jesuit mission of St. 
Francis Xavier, they maintained a stockade called Fort la 
Bale ; and there they stationed a garrison to command 
the approach to the Mississippi by way of the Fox River 
portage and the Wisconsin. 

All these forts were mere blockhouses, built chiefly of 
wood, and they had no great strength to withstand the 
attack of a determined enemy. They were the centers, 
however, of active trade with the Indians, and they were 

32 



JucJicrcau 33 

intended not only to keep English agents and traders from 
entering the hunting grounds of the Northwest, but also 
to prevent the distant tribes from carrying their peltries to 
the Dutch-English merchants at Oswego and Albany. 

Very early in the century the French had seen the 
necessity of guarding the Mississippi from the intrusion 
of the English, and plans had been formed for the estab- 
lishment of several armed posts at different points along 
the river. One of these posts was erected at the mouth of 
the Arkansas, and another near the mouth of the Ohio. The 
latter was commanded by Captain Juchereau of Montreal, 

and manned by thirty-five Canadian soldiers and 

. . 1703 

hunters. It was a kind of midway point between 

Canada and the French settlements on the Gulf, and must 
be passed by all persons going from one of these places to 
the other. 

No sooner was the little post inclosed with palisades 
than Juchereau began to make plans for the enlarge- 
ment of his settlement. It was his intention, while guard- 
ing this entrance to the Illinois Country, to collect furs 
and other peltries, open mines of copper and lead in the 
neighborhood, and carry on trade with the Indians. He 
was not successful in prospecting for minerals, for none 
were discovered ; but his hunters brought in such great 
numbers of buffalo skins that he found it advisable to set 
up a tannery for turning them into leather. Quite a 
number of Indians were attracted to the post, and Father 
Mermet, an earnest Jesuit missionary, tried hard to con- 
vert them to Christianity. A little village quickly sprang 
up. In the very shadow of the stockade a temporary 



34 French Prccajitious 

chapel was built, while the Indian wigwams were clustered 
near by, half hidden in the tall grass of the prairie. 

But the country for miles around was Httle better than 
a morass. The oozy soil bred miasms, and the air was 
laden with malaria. Soon nearly every person was pros- 
trated with disease. The Indians were the chief sufferers, 
and numbers of them died. To appease their manitou, 
the poor savages killed forty dogs and carried them on 
poles in solemn procession round the village. Then, in 
their fear of the French manitou, which they believed to be 
more powerful than their own, the medicine men cried out : 
*' Oh, manitou of the French, have pity upon us ! Do not 
kill us all. Strike gently. Spare us or we shall all die." 

Finally, as humble suppliants, they came to Father 
Mermet. ''Truly, good manitou," they prayed, ''thou 
art the keeper of hfe and death. We beg of thee to 
hold death fast in thy sack : give out life, that we may 
not die." But neither their own prayers nor those of the 
good priest availed to save them from the dreaded scourge. 
Death found new victims almost every day. 

Such of the Indians as survived left the place as soon as 

possible. Father Mermet retired to Kaskaskia. Captain 

Juchereau, himself, soon fell a victim to the pre- 
1704 

vailing disease. A party of unfriendly Miamis 

— incited, it was thought, by the English — came sweep- 
ing down the Ohio, and the remnant of the garrison hastily 
abandoned the stricken post. Some sought safety and 
health in the slightly older settlements farther up the 
Mississippi, others returned to Mackinac on the lakes or 
to Canada. 



Fort Chart res 



35 



II. FORT CHARTRES 



No further attempt was made to hold the post at the 
mouth of the Ohio, and Juchereau's little fort, which, at 
best, was but a feeble affair, soon crumbled 
into ruins. The necessity, however, of a strong 
military station on the Mississippi was not 
lost sight of. At length, when M. Pierre 
Dugue Boisbriant was sent to take command 
in the Illinois Country, he was directed to 
build a strong fort at some convenient spot 
in the neighborhood of the settlements. 

The place selected for this fortress was on 

the east side of the Mississippi, about sixteen 

miles above Kaskaskia. The work 
1720 

was planned by skilled engineers, 

and after eighteen months of labor, and a 
vast expenditure on the part of the govern- 
ment, it was finished and named Fort 
Chartres in honor of the regent of France. 
This remarkable structure stood in the 
heart of the wilderness, a short distance 
from the river's bank. It was four-sided 
in form, although not a square ; and at each corner was 
a bastion built of stone and plastered over with lime. 
Each side was three hundred and forty feet in length, 
and the walls were from two to three feet thick and 
fifteen feet high. In each wall, at regular distances, were 
loopholes for cannon. The cornices and casements about 
the gates were of solid blocks of freestone. Within the 




The French settle- 
ments in Illinois 



36 



FrcncJi Precautions 



walls were two roomy barracks built of stone, a spacious 
magazine, two deep wells, and houses for the officers. 
A wide and deep ditch was begun on the outside of the 
walls, but was never finished. The structure was said 
to be the most convenient and the best-built fort in North 
America. 

Here, far removed from the world's civilization, dwelt 
the French commandant with his officers and their fami- 
lies and a goodly number 
of soldiers and servants. 
To this place were carried 
the polite manners and the 
fashions of Paris. Noble 
gentlemen and well-dressed 
ladies danced in the great 
hall, or strolled among the 
trees outside the walls, or 
in some other manner 
whiled away the lonely 
hours and made the long 
days enjoyable. Priests in 
their black gowns, and 
sweet-faced nuns with beads 




"The polite manners and the fashions 
of Paris " 



and crucifix, were there to 
maintain the authority of 
the Church, to console the sick and distressed, to admonish 
the living, and to pray for the dead. Hither came rude 
coureurs de bois with their strange, rough manners and 
their tales of adventure among wild men and savage beasts. 
Hither also came traders with goods of all kinds from 



Vine nines 37 

France, or with loads of furs and buffalo skins to be 
carried to the market at Kaskaskia, or shipped direct to 
Mobile on the Gulf. Half-naked Indians, too, gay with 
feathers and horrible in their war paint, often visited the 
fort to trade with the inmates, to see the soldiers drilling 
on the parade ground, or to beg some favor from the 
commandant. 

Very strange and romantic was life in that remote wil- 
derness fort, a thousand miles from the nearest center of 
civilization, and we could wish to know much more about 
it. But the traveler who now visits the place will fail to 
find any remnant of the massive fortification or any me- 
mento to remind him of the grandeur and gayety that 
once existed within its walls. Fifty years after its com- 
pletion the spring floods were so unusually strong that the 
river broke through its banks, overflowed the bottoms, and 
formed a new channel much nearer the fort. Soon the 
western walls were undermined by the current, and two 
of the bastions tumbled into the stream. Then slowly 
but surely the waters wore away the land ; the barracks, 
the garrison chapel, the officers' quarters, all were swal- 
lowed up, and not a vestige of "the strongest fortress on 
the continent " remained. 



III. VINCENNES 

At about the time that M. Boisbriant was laying the 
foundations of Fort Chartres, the Tvvightwees, a powerful 
branch of the Miamis, were beginning to make their influ- 
ence felt among the western tribes. They had lately 



38 



FrcncJi Precautions 



removed from their old homes about the St. Joseph and 
were settled along the head waters of the Wabash and 
at their village of Kekionga near the Maumee portage. 
Their hunting parties ranged the country to the southeast, 
and wandered as far as to the Ohio, where they often 

had dealings with trespass- 
ing English traders or were 
tempted by Iroquois agents 
in the pay of the English. 

Very naturally the French 
began to feel alarmed. They 
could not afford to lose the 
friendship of the Miamis. 
The safest thing to do was 
to keep them out of the way 
of temptation. If they could 
be persuaded to return to the 
St. Joseph and hunt only in 
the secure wilds of Michigan, 
all would be well. 

The man who had most in- 
fluence among these savages 
was the Sieur de Vincennes, a Canadian gentleman, kins- 
man of Louis Joliet, the explorer of the Mississippi. To 
him the woods and great rivers of the Northwest 
offered so many attractions that he had spent 
his life among them, building up French interests and 
enjoying the savage freedom of the wilderness. At the 
suggestion of the governor of Canada, he undertook the 
duty of persuading the Miamis to remove from the region 




1719 



J'^iuccnncs 39 

of danger. The savages listened to him with patience, 
and when he promised to go with them to their former 
homes on the St. Joseph, they consented, if only they might 
wait until after the autumn hunt and the gathering in of 
the corn. 

But before the autumn came the Sieur de Vincennes 
was taken sick ; and while the corn was still green in the 
ear he died and was buried in the village of Kekionga. 
** Who now will lead us to the St. Joseph, and who will 
befriend us there.''" asked the Miamis. "We will stay 
where we are." 

The noble Canadian was succeeded by his nephew, 
Francois Margane, who also assumed his title of Sieur 
de Vincennes. The young man was brave, discreet, and 
thoroughly inured to the wild life of the woods. No one 
was better fitted to carry on the work which his uncle had 
begun. The Miamis looked up to him with confidence, 
but they would not be persuaded to stir from Kekionga. 
The best he could do was to cultivate their friendship 
and keep a watchful eye on such of their young men 
as were most likely to be influenced by the English. 

Of all the routes between Canada and the Illinois 

Country that by way of the Maumee and the Wabash was 

much the shorter and easier. To aid in protecting this 

route as well as to supply a kind of midway station for 

traders and voyageurs, the young Sieur de Vincennes 

built and fortified the post of Ouiatenon near the 

1720 ? 
present site of the city of Lafayette. This little 

fort was on the north bank of the Wabash, two or three 

miles above the chief villao:e of the Ouiatenon Indians. 



40 FrciicJi Precautious 

A few years later another fort was built near the 

Piankeshaw town of Chipkawkay, a hundred and twenty 

miles farther down the Wabash, and the Sieur de 
1727 ? 

Vincennes was appointed to its command. A 

mission was established, and a French village grew up 
around the fort. Traders and coureurs de bois were 
attracted to the place, and it soon became a depot where 
immense stores of furs were collected to be shipped north- 
ward to the Canadian markets or southward to the French 
ports on the Gulf. The Sieur de Vincennes was not only 
the military commander of the post, but for a few years he 
was the leader of every important enterprise. He was 
honored as the founder and patron of the village. Many 
new families gathered there, and the place grew and pros- 
pered, being in all things much like any other French settle- 
ment in the Northwest. It was long known merely as the 
Post on the Wabash (Poste au Ouabache) ; but after the 
tragic death of its founder — burned at the stake by Chicka- 
saw Indians — it was named, in his honor. Post Vincennes. 
Life was easy at Post Vincennes. The soldiers and 
their officers, the traders, the coureurs, and the contented 
villagers felt very secure in their secluded home with the 
trackless forest stretching hundreds of miles to the east of 
them, and on the west the treeless prairies extending to 
the setting sun. Furs were plentiful ; the Indians were 
friendly; and but little occurred to disturb the serenity of 
the Httle settlement. And if, now and then, rumors came 
of trespasses by Englishmen into the regions about the 
head waters of the Ohio, these rumors caused but little 
anxiety — the English were still so far away. 



TJic Trespass ci's 4 1 



IV. THE TRESPASSERS 



The Shawnees in the valley of the Ohio had never been 
firm friends of the French, and it was through them that 
the Dutch-luiglish traders at Oswego and Albany hoped 
finally to gain a foothold in the Northwest. The white 
men whose tampering with the Miamis of Kekionga had 
given the first alarm to the French, were agents of these 
traders. They were backwoods adventurers, having all 
the bad qualities of the French coureurs de bois and but 
few of their redeeming traits. They were rough, bold, 
cunning, heartless, skilled in the lore of the woods, and 
having a thorough knowledge of Indian character. If 
the Shawnees and Miamis chose to trade with them, how 
could the French soldiers and traders on the Wabash or 
at Fort Chartres or Detroit prevent their coming t 

Year after year these men continued to visit the region 
watered by the northern tributaries of the Ohio. Singly, 
or by twos and threes, they would go to an Indian village 
in the autumn carrying a stock of blankets and fire water 
which the savages were always eager to buy. The agent 
was all smiles and blandishments. He was not obliged, 
like the French traders, to divide profits with a great 
monopoly or with the king, and therefore he could sell 
his goods cheap and offer high prices for furs. " You 
may have as much fire water as you want," he would say. 
" You need not pay for it now ; but in the spring, 
when I come again, you may give me as many furs as it 
is worth." Of course the foolish Indians would buy in 
large quantities. They would spend the winter in carous- 



42 



FrcncJi Pjrcautioiis 



ing, and when the time for payment came they would be 
in hard straits to meet their promises. More smiles and 
more blandishments would follow ; more strong drink 
would be produced ; and then all the furs that could be 
gotten together would pass into the agent's hands. 

It was through such means as these that the English 
traders sought to gain and keep the friendship of the 




"The agent was all smiles and blandishments 



western tribes and turn them away from the French. 
And they succeeded so well that, in the course of time, 
a large share of the fur trade in the valley of the Ohio 
was controlled by them and their agents. English rum 
was plentiful, English goods were cheap, English prom- 
ises were alluring — and these bade fair to win the hearts 
of the wavering red men. 



J one aire 43 

V. JONCAIKE 

With every day that passed, the French became more 
and more convinced that something must be done to 
counteract the influence of their rivals. But what could 
they do? If they could only drive the trespassing Eng- 
lishmen from their territory, they might make short work 
of the whole matter. But the agents were too wily to 
be caught ; and it soon became plain that some of the 
tribes were ready at any time to transfer their friend- 
ship to the English. At length it was decided to send 
into the Ohio Country a man of influence among the 
Indians, who should show the Shawnees and Miamis 
the great mistake they would make by turning away 
from their former patrons and friends. 

For this important duty Joseph Joncaire, a Frenchman 

of great shrewdness and daring, was chosen. No man 

understood the Indian character better than he : 

1730 ? 
no man was more highly esteemed by all the 

red men of the Northwest. He was almost an Indian 
himself. Many years before, when a young man, he had 
been taken prisoner by the Seneca-Iroquois. His captors 
tortured him in their usual manner, and were astonished 
at his fortitude. They tied him to a tree and kindled 
a fire to burn him to death ; but his courage and indif- 
ference to pain won their hearts. They scattered the 
burning brands, and ended by adopting Joncaire into 
their tribe, and welcoming him as their brother. He 
did not object to becoming an Indian. He lived with 
the Senecas for many years, married the daughter of a 



44 FraicJi Precautions 

Seneca chief, brought up a family of copper-colored 
children, and became almost as much of a savage as the 
savagest Iroquois. But he was always faithful to his 
kinsmen, the French, and more than once did he render 
them valuable service. He was now to aid them in 
another manner by being their envoy to the tribes in 
the Ohio Valley. 

Joncaire, with a few Indian companions, embarked 
upon one of the head waters of the Ohio and floated 
down that stream toward the country of the Miamis. 
The region between Lake Erie and the Beautiful River 
was still for the most part an uninhabited wilderness — 
the hunting grounds of the Iroquois and of some of the 
smaller western nations. To white men the Ohio itself 
was almost unknown, for since its discovery by La Salle, 
more than half a century before, few but the most daring 
wood rangers had visited it; and even the Indians who 
ventured to set up their wigwams near its banks were 
ignorant of much of the country through which it flowed. 

As Joncaire with his companions canoed down the 
noble stream, now swollen by the spring floods, they met 
several small bands of Shawnees hunting in the forest or 
encamped in some temporary village near the shore. To 
all these he delivered his message from ** Onontio, their 
loving father" the governor of Canada, telling them to 
beware of the English. Now and then he heard news 
of trespassing agents having crossed his path, but they 
were always careful to keep out of his sight. Near the 
place where now stands the city of Cincinnati he found 
some straggUng Miamis whose homes were a little farther 



Fort Massac 45 

westward and northward on the rivers that bear their 
name. All listened with great attention to what he had 
to say. They promised not to sell their furs to any but 
French traders, and declared themselves ready to go on 
the warpath whenever " Onontio " should call for the 
punishment of the English. 

But no sooner had Joncaire left them than they for- 
got all their promises, welcomed the English traders to 
their villages, and renewed their friendship with Onon- 
tio's enemies. 

VI. FORT MASSAC 

While the Sieur de Vincennes was establishing the post 
that was afterward known by his name, other Frenchmen 
were building a small fort on the north bank of the Ohio, 
about forty miles above the junction of that stream with 
the Mississippi and just opposite the mouth of the Ten- 
nessee. This fort was intended to serve as a trading post, 
a missionary station, and a protection against raids by 
hostile Indians from the south. Soon after Joncaire's visit, 
it was enlarged and strengthened, and surrounded by high 
palisades, so that it might be proof not only 
against the attacks of unfriendly savages but also 
against any attempted seizure by EngUsh traders or ex- 
plorers. A garrison of French soldiers was stationed there, 
and the place became quite a resort for the coureurs who 
ranged the woods and prairies of the lower Wabash. Its 
prosperity, however, was but short lived. 

One morning the French soldiers, looking out over the 
river, were surprised to see half a dozen bears ambling 



V 



46 



FroicJi Precautions 



along among the bushes near the opposite bank of the 
river. It was a strange and unusual sight, and all the 
men in the garrison, together with the visiting coureurs 
and traders, were wild with excitement. So far as the 
soldiers knew, there was not an enemy 
within a hundred miles. Why should 
they stay cooped up within the fort 
-, when such rare game was in sight } 
Some of them at once 
rushed for the boats and 
- rowed rapidly across the 
river. All the others ran 
down to the water side to 
watch the sport, leaving the 
. gate of the stockade 
%^/P wide open. Scarcely 
had the boats touched 
the opposite bank 
when wild yells were 
3. heard on every hand 
and a scene of fright- 
ful confusion began. 
The supposed bears 
suddenly turned into naked savages, and at the same time 
a score of warriors rushed from the thickets on this 
side of the river and crowded through the open gate 
into the fort. The soldiers — many of them being without 
arms — were taken by surprise. A terrible massacre fol- 
lowed, and but few of the French escaped with their 
lives. The Indians burned the fort and then, with many 




" Half a dozen bears ambling along " 



Fort Massac 47 

bloody scalps dangling from their belts, returned into 
the woods. 

Some time afterward another fort was built on the same 
spot. It was made much stronger than the first, and was 
garrisoned by soldiers who were not likely to be deceived 
by savage cunning. It was called Fort Massac, in honor of 
M. Massac, the first commander of the post; but in remem- 
brance of the bloody slaughter that had taken place there, 
many people were accustomed to speak of it as Fort 
Massacre. It formed one of a chain of military posts 
which the French planned to establish from Lake Erie 
and the head waters of the Ohio to the Gulf of Mexico. 
The governor of Canada and the French king were begin- 
ning to understand that a great struggle for the possession 
of the lakes and the Mississippi was near at hand. *' If 
the English once gain a foothold in the West," said some 
of the king's counselors, "we shall lose not only Louisiana 
and the regions north and west, but Canada itself." 



BIENVILLE DE CELORON 
I. ON THE ALLEGHENY 

THE plan of building a line of forts for the protection 
of French interests in the Northwest was a wise one, 
but the work was allowed to languish. Year after year 
passed by, and but little was accomplished. The English 
never relaxed their claims, and their traders boldly invaded 
the territory which the French regarded as their own. 
Each year the French saw the fur trade setting more and 
more toward Albany instead of toward their own trade 
centers in Canada and on the Gulf. Their control over 
the western Indians seemed to be growing constantly 
weaker — they feared it would soon be lost. 

At length the French government saw that something 
decisive must be done without further delay. As a first 

step, therefore, in streno^thening^ the claims and 
1749 

influence of France, M. Bienville de Celoron was 

instructed to explore the Ohio region and take formal 

possession of the country in the name of King Louis XV. 

On a warm day in July Celoron started from Canada on 

this important mission. He had with him twenty soldiers, 

a large number of voyageurs, and about thirty Indians, 

most of them being Iroquois. A son of the famous Jon- 

caire, a half-breed Seneca having great influence among 

the Indians, went with him as his interpreter and guide, 

48 



On tlie AllegJicny 



49 






From Lake Erie Celoron and his company crossed the 
short but difficult portage to Chautauqua Lake, where 
they launched their fleet of Hght canoes and began their 
voyage. Without mishap or delay they continued their 
course to the outlet of that beautiful sheet of water and 
then onward down the crooked 
and shallow stream which connects 
it with the Allegheny. " In some 
places," wrote Father Bonnecamp, 
the priest who went with the ex- 
pedition, "the water was only 
two or three inches deep ; and 
we were reduced to the sad ne- 
cessity of dragging our canoes 
over the sharp pebbles, which, 
with all our care and precau- - 

tion, stripped off large slivers of 
the bark. At last, tired and worn, 
and almost in despair of ever seeing 
La Belle Riviere, we entered it at 
noon of the 29th." 

It was the Allegheny River 
upon which their canoes emerged ; 
for that stream was then considered a part of 
the Ohio or La Belle Riviere. At the first convenient 
place the party landed in order to perform an important 
ceremony which was to be repeated at various points 
farther down the river. Soldiers and voyageurs were 
drawn up in line upon the bank ; the priest pronounced a 
blessing, and Celoron in a loud voice proclaimed King 




portage 



CONQ. O.N.W. ■ 



so 



Bienville de Celorofi 



Louis XV. to be the rightful sovereign of all the land. 
A sheet of tin bearing the arms of France was nailed to 
a tree, and at its foot an engraved leaden plate was buried 
" as a token of renewal of possession heretofore taken of 
the River Ohio, of all streams that fall into it, and all lands 
on both sides to the source of the aforesaid streams." 




As they floated down the Allegheny " 



This ceremony being ended, the soldiers fired a salute, 
the Indians and voyageurs yelled in concert, and the party 
again took to their canoes. 

As they floated down the Allegheny they passed many 
straggling wigwams and small villages of Indians. The 
sight of so many canoes with white men caused great 
alarm, and men, women, and children fled into the woods. 
Young Joncaire with all his arts of persuasion could hardly 



D 01V 11 La Belle Kivicir 



51 



make them believe that the l^'reiichmcn iiUciulecl to do no 
harm. Whenever they could be induced to stop and listen, 
Celoron would read to them a letter which he said was 
from their ** great father," the king of France. 

"My children," the letter ran, "since I was at war with 
the English, I have learned that they have deceived you ; 
and, not content with corrupting your hearts, they have 
invaded my lands. I therefore send to you Monsieur 
de Celoron to tell you my intentions, which are that I 
will not endure the English on my land. Listen to me, 
children ; mark well the word that I send you ; follow 
my advice, and the sky will always be calm and clear 
over your villages." 



II. DOWN LA BELLE RIVIERE 

In a few days the party reached a village of the 
Delawares from which all the people had fled. . This 
was at a place which 
Celoron described as 
the finest on the river. 
It was probably at 
the forks of the Ohio 
where now stands 
the city of Pittsburg. 
There, with the usu- 
al ceremonies, they 
buried another leaden 
plate, after which 

they continued their voyage. They were now fairly 
launched on the Ohio itself, the true Helle Riviere, 




52 Bienville de Celoron 

discovered and first navigated by the Sieur de la Salle, 
eighty years before. Eighteen or twenty miles farther 
down, they came to a large village which the French 
called Chininqiie, but which was known to the English 
traders as Logstown. It was the most important place 
on the river and was inhabited mainly by Delawares 
and Shawnees. Here, too, lived a number of Mingoes, 
a mixed race, descended from the Iroquois and the con- 
quered Andastes, or Eries, of the Lake Erie region. 

The savages at Logstown were not afraid of the French- 
men, neither did they receive them very kindly. They 
ranged themselves along the river bank and greeted their 
visitors with a volley of musket shots. But here young 
Joncaire's good offices were again most valuable. He 
persuaded the chiefs to allow Celoron to land his men, 
and a time was set for the holding of a council. 

At the council Celoron read another letter which he 
said had been written by their French father, ** Onontio," 
the governor of Canada. '* My children," it ended, " the 
English intend to rob you of your country ; and that 
they may succeed, they begin by corrupting your minds. 
As they mean to seize the Ohio, which belongs to me, I 
send to warn them to retire." 

The chiefs were not altogether pleased. " The Eng- 
lish," they said, *' pay us the best prices for our furs. 
Their rum and their blankets are good and cheap, and we 
need them. Yet we will do what the great father bids us." 

There were ten English traders in the town at that 
very time ; and Celoron had but little faith in the 
promises of the chiefs. 



Dozvn La Belle Rivih'e 53 

As the party continued their voyage down the beauti- 
ful river they heard of the EngHsh at many places. 
Men from Virginia had been exploring the rich 
valleys on the south, and they were already 
making plans for the settlement of that region. A number 
of wealthy Virginians had formed a company called the 
Ohio Company; and the king of England had, that very 
summer, granted to this company two hundred thousand 
acres of land, to be chosen wherever they should prefer, 
west of the Alleghanies. 

At some distance below Logstown, Celoron met six Eng- 
lishmen, who had been trading in the Northwest and 
were returning to Pennsylvania. They had fifty horses 
with them and a hundred and fifty bales of furs which 
they had bought from the Miamis and Shawnees. As 
France and England were then at peace, Celoron did 
not dare to punish these trespassers as he thought they 
deserved. All he could do was to bid them to leave the 
country as quickly as possible and never come back. 
The traders answered, very meekly, that they would obey 
his commands ; and they carried a letter from Celoron 
to the governor of Pennsylvania asking him to forbid 
his subjects trespassing upon the territories of the king 
of P^rance. It is not to be supposed that they remem- 
bered their promises long, or that the letter had much 
influence with the governor. 

At the mouth of the Muskingum River another sheet 
of tin was nailed upon a tree and another lead plate 
was buried. More than sixty years afterward, some boys 
who were playing along the river, saw the edge of this 



54 



Bienville dc Celoron 



plate jutting out from the side of a bank where the 
stream had partly unearthed it. The foolish lads carried 
it home, and had melted a part of it into bullets before 
its value was discovered. What was left of it may still 

be seen in the museum of the 
American Antiquarian Society. 
Two or three other plates have 
since been found in other places 
near the junction of other rivers 
with the Ohio. 

Celoron's further progress down 
the Ohio was neither pleasant 
nor promising. Many of the men 
unused to the hot August weather 
became sick. The Indians along 
the shore were suspicious if not 
unfriendly. It was plain that the 
EngHsh had been tampering with 
them and making them promises. 
One morning, near the mouth of 
the Scioto River, the voyagers came 
upon a large village of Shawnees. 
They landed some distance above 
the place, and young Joncaire, with a flag of truce, went 
forward to make peace with the savages. As he approached 
the village he was greeted with fierce yells and hoots of 
defiance. His flag was riddled with bullets, and a party 
of young braves rushed upon him and made him prisoner. 
Some tried to tomahawk him on the spot ; others wanted to 
burn him alive. But there chanced to be in the village 




Present appearance of 

one of the lead plates 



Down La Pnllc Riviere 



55 



an Iroquois chief who had known Joncairc since his 
boyhood. 

" Let the young man go," said he. ** He is my brother, 
and you shall not harm him." 

The Shawnees hesitated. 
They dared not offend the 
Iroquois nation, and still 
they did not wish to receive 
the French. At last, how- 
ever, they loosed their hold 
upon their prisoner and 
bade him go back to his 
companions. 

Celoron was now more 
than ever anxious to win 
the friendship of these 
Indians, for he knew that 
if the English should per- 
suade them to take the 
warpath, they would be 
powerful foes. He there- 
fore ordered his men to 
embark again and drop 
down the river to a point 
opposite the village. 
When the savages saw 
them coming they rushed 
to the shore and began 

shooting at the canoes. But no one was hurt. The 
Frenchmen landed in safety, posted guards along the 




^■f^fiy"'„^^ 



His flag was riddled with bullets" 



56 Bienville de Celoron 

river bank, and made as great a display of force as 
they could. 

As the day wore on, the Indians began to feel alarmed, 
and sent some of their older men across the river to make 
a treaty of peace. A council was held in Celoron's tent. 
The chiefs expressed great sorrow that their young men 
should have behaved so badly, and promised to help the 
Frenchmen along in their voyage. There were some 
English traders in the village, and Celoron demanded that 
they should be driven out. But the Indians gave him to 
understand that this would not be done ; and the coun- 
cil broke up without either party having gained what it 
wanted. 

III. UP THE GREAT MIAMI 

On one of the last days in August the voyagers arrived 

at the mouth of the Great Miami. There Celoron buried 

the last of his leaden plates and resolved to follow the 

Ohio no farther. For a whole month, as Father 
1749 

Bonnecamp says, he had been exploring " La 

Belle Riviere, that river so little known to the French, and 

unfortunately too well known to the English." He was 

resolved now to penetrate boldly into the interior of the 

country, and by making friends with the natives, win them 

to the support of the French cause. 

On the following day, therefore, the party began a slow 

and laborious voyage up the Great Miami. The heat was 

oppressive, many of the men were ill, and progress was 

very slow. The few Indians that were met were of the 

Miami nation, and they proved to be no more friendly 



up tJic Great Miami 57 

than the Shawnees. Ccloron tried to win their confidence 
by giving them presents of powder and shot ; but they 
would accept nothing from him. It was plain that English 
traders had been among them. 

Near the mouth of Loramie Creek, a hundred miles 
from the Ohio, there was a large village of Miamis ruled 
over by a chief known to the French as La Demoiselle, 
but to the English as Old Britain. This village which the 
English called Pique Town, or Pickawillany, not long 
afterward became one of the most powerful Indian towns 
in the Northwest and the seat of the great Miami Confed- 
eracy. Celoron and his party stopped here for a day, and 
a council was held with La Demoiselle and his braves. 

For many years the French had been trying to persuade 
the Miamis to return to their former hunting grounds, 
farther to the north and out of the way of temptation by 
the EngHsh. Celoron now endeavored to induce La De- 
moiselle to lead his people back to their old homes at 
Kekionga near the Maumee portage. " My children," he 
said, addressing the chiefs in council, "you will enjoy in 
that country the delights of life, it being the place where 
repose the bones of your fathers and those of the Sieur de 
Vincennes whom you much loved." La Demoiselle and 
his chiefs listened kindly to what the Frenchman said, 
and promised that at a convenient time they would do all 
that was asked of them ; but any one could see that they, 
too, had been won over to the English cause. 

For three weeks the voyagers toiled up the Miami, 
until at last the stream became so shallow as to make 
further progress by water impossible. Then they dragged 



58 Bienville de Celoron 

their canoes ashore and burned them. The next day 
they bought a few horses of the Indians, and started over- 
land through the untracked wilderness, directing their 

course toward the northwest. For five days they 
1749 

struggled through the woods and at last reached 

the spot where two small rivers unite to form the Maumee, 
or as it was then called, the Miami-of-the-Lakes. Here 
was the site of the old Miami village of Kekionga, and the 
place where now stands the city of Fort Wayne. On the 
north bank of the Maumee, Celoron and his companions 
found a small stockade occupied by a few French soldiers 
and coureurs de bois. There was not much there, how- 
ever, to cheer the tired wanderers ; for every man at the 
post was sick with fever and ague, and accommodations 
were very slight for so large a company. The very next 
day, therefore, Celoron borrowed some log canoes, and the 
homeward voyage was begun. 

A week later he was at Detroit, and on the ninth of 
November he arrived safe at Montreal. He had been 
absent a little over three months, had traveled a dis- 
tance of more than twelve hundred miles, had traversed 
unknown rivers and pierced trackless forests, had met 
many unfriendly bands of savages, and had returned from 
his perilous expedition with the loss of only a single man. 
His visit to the Ohio Country must have produced greater 
results than was at first supposed ; for, when war actually 
began between the English and the French, the Indians 
very generally gave their support to the latter. 



CHRISTOPHER GIST 
I. TO THE JVIUSKINTGUM 

MENTION has already been made of the Ohio Com- 
pany which had been organized by wealthy Vir- 
ginians for the purpose of trading in western lands. They 
had obtained from the king of England a grant of two 
hundred thousand acres to be chosen by them in any part 
of the Ohio Valley which seemed to be the most desirable. 
It was an easy thing for the king to give away lands 
which he had never really possessed ; and the only con- 
ditions which he required were that the Ohio Company 
should build a fort on their domains and should settle 
a hundred ^families of colonists near it. If they failed to 
do this within seven years, the lands should revert to the 
king. 

Within less than a year after Celoron's famous voyage 
down the Ohio, this company resolved to send out an ex- 
pedition which should explore the country north 
of that river, and discover, if possible, the best 
place to locate their proposed colony. The expedition 
was to be made, not by an officer with soldiers and 
voyageurs and Indian hangers-on, as had been the case 
with Celoron, but by a single man skilled in woodcraft 
and well acquainted with savage life and manners. It was 
conducted not by the government with a great show of 

59 



6o Christopher Gist 

power, but by a private trading and emigration company, 
quietly and without publicity. Its object was not to take 
formal possession of the country and drive out intruders, 
but to discover what were its resources and by what means 
English settlers might get into it. 

The man chosen for this important service was Chris- 
topher Gist, a hunter and trader from North Carolina, 
whose life had been spent on the wilderness frontier. He 
was not expected to bury leaden plates, or to make procla- 
mations ; but he was instructed to go as far west as the 
falls of the Ohio, to find out what Indian tribes were in 
the country and how strong they were, to learn what 
were the easiest routes over the mountains and through 
the wilderness, and to see where the most level and most 
fertile lands were located. 

It was late in the autumn when he started. It lacked 

but a month of Christmas when he reached Logstown. 

He found there a number of traders from Pennsyl- 
1750 

vania, rough and lawless men who were ready to 

do any kind of wickedness that came into their minds. They 
were suspicious of Gist, and told him that he ** should never 
go home safe." But Gist was not the man to be frightened ; 
and when he informed them that he was in the service of 
the king they gave him no further annoyance. 

About the middle of December he reached the Mus- 
kingum River, where was a village of Wyandots. These 
Indians were a remnant of the once great Huron 
nation, and were uncertain whether to remain friendly 
to their old allies, the French, or join themselves to 
the cause of the English. In their village Gist found 



To the Muskingum 



6i 



a Scotch-Irish trader named Georp^e Croghan, who had 
great iiifiuence over all the rude rovers in the wilderness. 
Here, too, he met Andrew Montour, one of the most 
picturesque characters of that re- 
markable time — a typical Indian 
scout and interpreter, accustomed 
from his birth to the wild life of 
the woods. Montour's mother 
was a half-breed of much influ- 
ence among the Iroquois ; his 
father, Big Tree, an Iroquois 
chief, had been killed several 
years before while fighting with 
some western Indians. Andrew 
had the features and form 
of a Frenchman, but many 
of the manners of an Indian. 
He was the dandy of the 
wilderness. His face was 
greased and painted like 
that of a true savage, and in his 
ears he wore huge brass ornaments 
*' something like the handle of a 
basket." His cinnamon-colored coat 
was of fine cloth, and underneath it 
he wore a scarlet waistcoat of satin. 

His necktie was black, ornamented with silver spangles. 
He wore his shirt on the outside of his trousers ; on his 
head was a hat of English make ; and his feet and legs 
were protected by shoes and stockings. He had at 




He was the dandy of the 
wilderness " 



62 CJiristopJicr Gist 

several times been of great service to the English, and 
his Indian kinsmen held him in great esteem. 

Gist stayed but a few days among the Wyandots, and 
then went onward through the dense forest. Montour 
and Croghan were with him. They stopped for a day 
at a Httle village on White Woman's Creek, where lived 
Mary Harris who had been taken captive by the savages 
forty years before. She seemed to be content with her 
lot, having an Indian husband and many half-breed chil- 
dren. *' But she still remembers," says Gist, '' that they 
used to be very religious in New England, and wonders 
how white men can be so wicked as she has seen them 
in these woods." 

II. AT PICKAWILLANY 

After visiting the Delawares on the Scioto, Gist and his 
two companions made their way across the country to Picka- 
willany on the Great Miami. The region through which 
they passed was of surpassing loveliness. ** It is well 
timbered with large walnut, ash, sugar trees, and cherry 
trees," says Gist ; '* well watered with a great number 
of little streams and rivulets ; full of beautiful natural 
meadows, with wild rye, bluegrass, and clover; and abound- 
ing with turkeys, deer, elks, and most sorts of game, 
particularly buffaloes, thirty or forty of which are fre- 
quently seen in one meadow." 

Here some Englishmen were setting up a trading 
post and storehouses. It was the most western point to 
which they had yet dared venture. Since Celoron's visit, 
a year before, the place had increased in size and im- 



A t Picka willany 



63 



portance. It now contained more than four hundred In- 
dian famihes, and was the largest village in the country. 
The Miami Confederacy, which included nearly all the 
tribes in the Ohio Valley, had but recently been formed, 
and here was the center of its power. The leader of this 
confederacy was Old Britain, or La Demoiselle, the same 
wild savage who had received Celoron so dubiously. He 




M , Vi- Wis ^W^^ , ?-#, ^ 






"A message of good will from the commandant at Detroit " 



welcomed the three explorers very kindly, invited them to 
his house, and hoisted the English flag over his door. 

A council was called, and gifts were distributed by 
Croghan and Montour. Gist made a speech to the assem- 
bled warriors, and the thirty traders who happened to 
be in the village contributed to the good cheer of the 
occasion. The Miami chiefs were delighted, and a treaty 
of peace was solemnly completed between them and the 



64 CJiristopJicr Gist 

English. Some Ottawas, whom the French had sent 
down from the lakes, ventured to put in a word of protest. 
They displayed a French flag, treated the chiefs to a drink 
of French brandy, and delivered a message of good will 
from the commandant at Detroit. But Old Britain and 
his braves mocked them. " Brothers, the Ottawas," said 
the great war chief, " we let you know by these four 
strings of wampum that we will not hear anything the 
French say, nor do anything they bid us." 

The Ottawas withdrew, abashed, but nursing revenge 
for the slight that had been offered them. The very next 
winter they fell upon a band of Miamis and killed fifty 
of their number. 

Gist, according to his instructions, took careful note of 
the strength of the Miamis. In the report which he after- 
ward made to his employers, he said : *' They are accounted 
the most powerful people to the westward of the English 
settlements — at present very well affected toward the 
English, and fond of their allegiance with them." Thus 
the short-sighted Indians, by temporarily turning against 
the French, who were really their friends, were pav- 
ing the way for their own destruction. 

On the first of March Gist bade good-by to his friends 
at Pickawillany. He had been instructed to go as far 
west as the falls of the Ohio ; but the Miamis told him 
that it would be unsafe to do so on account 
of the French who were in that neighborhood. 
He therefore turned his steps homeward, going first to 
the mouth of the Scioto and making friends with the 
Shawnees who lived there. On the last day of the 



At Pickawillaiiy 65 

month he crossed the Ohio, and boldly entered a territory 
never before trodden by the feet of a white man. His 
course was at first southward to the head waters of the 
Licking River. He then crossed the mountains, and 
went eastward up the valley of the Clinch ; he passed the 
sources of New River, and after an absence of seven 
months finally reached his North Carolina home on the 
Yadkin. A few weeks later he appeared in Roanoke 
before a committee of the Ohio Company, to whom he 
gave an account of his adventures. He had traveled a 
distance of twelve hundred miles. His journey had been 
a successful one, and it marks the beginning of the 
English conquest of the Northwest. 



CONQ. O.N.W. — 5 



THE KEY TO THE OHIO VALLEY 
I. LEGARDEUR DE ST. PIERRE 

LEGARDEUR DE ST. PIERRE was a great-grand- 
son of Jean Nicolet, the discoverer of Lake Michigan. 
He had been educated in France, and had the refined 
manners and cultured habits of a French gentleman. But 

he inherited from his 
roving ancestor a love 
of the woods and a 
passion for adventure. 
Much the greater part 
of his life was spent in 
the wilderness of Can- 
ada and the forests of 
the Northwest. 
A dozen years before Celoron's famous expedition down 
the Ohio, St. Pierre was in command of a fort at 
Lake Pepin on the upper Mississippi. This was 
the most western, save one, of all the French outposts 
in the Old Northwest. It had been built for the pur- 
pose of gaining the confidence and the trade of the Sioux. 
The French had not yet ceased to dream of a waterway 
across the continent to the Pacific ; and it was hoped that 
by winning the friendship of the wild tribes of the far 
West the discovery of that waterway would be made easier. 

66 




In the forests " 



1737 



Lcgardciir dc St. Pierre 6y 

To the frontier outpost on Lake Pepin wonderful stories 
were brought of a great lake in the region of the setting 
sun, from which three rivers poured, one toward the 
Mississippi, one toward Hudson I^ay, and one toward the 
western ocean. Near this westward flowing river there 
were said to be walled towns in which white people lived 
who did not know the use of firearms ; and tales were 
told of strange forests of dyewood near the western coast, 
and of wonderful black fish that sported in the waters 
of the sea. 

St. Pierre believed these stories, as did everybody 
else, even to the governor of Canada. Various ex- 
peditions were sent out under a certain Canadian officer, 
the Sieur de Verendrye, and his sons ; and to aid in 
this enterprise a temporary fort was built on the banks 
of the distant Assiniboine. Ten years and more were 
spent in a vain search for the great lake and the west- 
ward flowing river. Verendrye explored the country bor- 
dering upon the Upper Missouri, and his sons went so 
far west that, first of Frenchmen, they saw some of the 
peaks of the Rocky Mountains. 

In the meanwhile the fort on Lake Pepin had suf- 
fered disaster. It was submerged and partly destroyed 
by a great freshet. The Sioux Indians looked upon the 
outpost with distrust and refused to trade there. Hostile 
Indians from the Green Bay region lay in ambush around 
it, and even attempted to scale its palisades. And at 
length St. Pierre found it wisest to burn the fort and make 
his way, as best he could, to the nearest port on the lakes. 

In the very year of Celoron's expedition down the Ohio, 



6^ 



The Key to the Ohio Valley 



1749 



Verendrye, old and broken down with disappointments, 
returned to Canada to die ; and Legardeur de St. 
Pierre was chosen to carry on the work which 

that determined hero 
had begun. In the 
following summer two 
expeditions started 
westward from Green 
Bay — one under St. 
Pierre himself, the 
other under a brave 
French officer named 
Marin. It was ar- 
ranged that after they 
had crossed the con- 
tinent they were to 
meet at some point 
on the shore of the 
Pacific. 

I need not say that 
they never reached 
the Pacific. Marin 
soon returned ; but 
St. Pierre was absent 
three years, exploring 
the Saskatchewan, and strengthening the fort on the As- 
siniboine. It was he, or some member of his party, who 
first applied the name " Montagues des Roches " to the 
great range of western highlands — a name which with 
the English became the familiar *' Rocky Mountains." 




" First of Frenchmen, they saw some of the 
peaks of the Rocky Mountains" 



Fort Ic lUriif 69 

St. Pierre found the Indians very troublesome, niiiking 
further explorations impossible. " It is evident," he said, 
'' that so long as these people trade with the English there 
is no hope of succeeding in finding a western sea. If 
there were no luigiish settlements at Hudson's Bay, all 
would be well." And so, at last, in the autumn of 1753, 
he returned to Canada, disheartened because of his failure, 
but laying all the blame for it upon the English. 



II. FORT LE BCEUF 

St. Pierre found the governor of Canada fully alive 

to the danger that was likely to follow the English 

encroachments in the Ohio Valley. Marin, upon his 

return from the distant West, had been sent out 

1752 
to fortify the route which Celoron had followed 

three years before. At Presque Isle, where now stands 

the city of Erie, Pennsylvania, he had put up a fort of 

squared chestnut logs, and there he had stored a great 

quantity of both necessary and unnecessary supplies. 

Then he had cut a broad road southward, twenty-one 

miles through the forest. At the end of that road, on the 

banks of French Creek, he had built a strong stockade 

which he called Fort le Boeuf, the first fortified post on 

the head waters of the Ohio. Canoes launched in the 

creek there could float down to the Allegheny and thence 

to any point on the disputed river. The place where the 

Allegheny and Monongahela meet to form the Ohio, and 

where now the city of Pittsburg stands, was recognized 

as the key to the valley of the Ohio, if not to the entire 



JO The Key to tJie Ohio Valley 

Northwest. For, from the English colonies there were 
but two available routes to that country — one from west- 
ern New York down the Allegheny, one from Virginia by 
way of the Potomac and Monongahela — and both met at 
the forks of the Ohio. 

No sooner had Marin established himself at Fort le 
Boeuf than he began to think of the next link in the chain 
of fortifications that he was expected to build. At the point 
where French Creek enters the Allegheny there was an 
Indian town called Venango, and a Virginian trader whose 
name was Fraser had built a trading post there. Marin 
sent young Joncaire forward with sixty men to take pos- 
session of this place. Joncaire seized the trading house, 
and turned it into a French fortification. 

The Indians who had treated Celoron so coolly and 
had made such fine promises to Croghan and Gist, began 
now to be thoroughly alarmed. Mingoes, Delawares, 
Shawnees, and even Miamis sent their head men to Fort 
le Boeuf to make matters right with Marin. The fickle 
savages who had been so eager to welcome the English 
now declared that they had always loved the French as 
brothers, and that nothing could turn them away from 
that love. The Iroquois, too, hastened to offer their 
friendship, and many of them lent their aid in carrying 
from Presque Isle to Le Boeuf the baggage and supplies 
that were required for the new fort. There was scarcely 
a tribe in the entire Ohio Valley that was not suddenly 
won over to the cause of the French. 

In the meanwhile, however, the P2nglish were not idle. 
George Croghan, from the Indian towns on the Ohio, 



Fort Ic Baiif yi 

had hastened to warn the governor of Pennsylvania of 
the danger that threatened. " The point to be aimed 
at," said he, "is the forks of the Ohio. Whoever forti- 
fies that place first will win control of the whole valley." 
Benjamin Franklin and other commissioners from Penn- 
sylvania thereupon held a council with some Ohio Indians 
who met them at Carlisle. These Indians declared that 
if the English wished to protect their trade in the North- 
west they riiust fortify their posts on the river before 
the French were in a condition to prevent them. 

And now an unexpected enemy put a check to the 
movements of the French. The woods and marshes 
through which Marin's men had toiled bravely from 
Presque Isle to Venango were full of malaria. The 
soldiers grew sick, and numbers of them died. As 
winter began to approach it was deemed best to send 
most of them back to Montreal, and to postpone all 
further movements until the following spring. Gov- 
ernor Duquesne, when he saw the emaciated figures of 
those who returned, was greatly shocked. ** Past all 
doubt," said he, "if they had gone down the Ohio, as 
intended, the river would have been strewn with corpses." 

It was just at this juncture that Legardeur de St. Pierre 
arrived in Canada from his three years' adventures in the 
distant West. A fortnight later, news came from Fort 
le Boeuf that his old friend Marin had also succumbed 
to disease, and had died bravely at his post in the 
wilderness. 

" You are the only man in Canada who can carry on 
the work which your former comrade has so well begun," 



72 The Key to tJie Ohio Valley 

said Governor Duquesne ; and he immediately appointed 
St. Pierre to be commandant of the projected line of 
military posts, with his headquarters at Fort le Boeuf. 

It was the first of December when St. Pierre arrived 
at his new place of duty. He was at that time a man 
past the prime of life, white-haired and dignified, 
with the air of a soldier and the manners of a 
gentleman. Winter had already set in. A drizzling rain 
was falling. The ground was partly covered with snow, 
and the water courses were full of mushy ice. The lonely 
fort in the midst of a dreary clearing, with the wild forest 
on every side, was a picture of desolation. But to St. 
Pierre, so lately returned from regions still more solitary 
and remote, the place seemed reasonably comfortable and 
not at all lonely. 



III. UNEXPECTED VISITORS 

At about sunset on the tenth day after St. Pierre's 
arrival at Le Boeuf, the sentinel at the gate cried out 
that strangers were approaching the fort. Out of the 
woods on the south, St. Pierre saw two horsemen coming. 
One was a tall young man, of very noble bearing ; the 
other was an elderly backwoodsman, clad in buckskin 
and armed with gun and knife. Behind these two came 
half a dozen Indians and three or four white men with 
pack horses — all wading slowly through the deep slush 
and snow. 

St. Pierre sent two of his officers out to meet the 
strangers. They proved to be Virginians, but were never- 



Ihiixpcctcd Visitors 



73 



theless welcomed to whatever comforts the little garrison 
was able to offer. The younger of the two horsemen 
said that he had business of importance with the com- 
mandant ; but after they had warmed themselves and 
supped at the officers' tables, it was too late to speak of 
it that night. 

The next morning the young stranger was led into 




" Out of the woods St. Pierre saw two horsemen coming " 

the presence of St. Pierre. The commandant received 
him very politely indeed, and very kindly. Little did he 
suppose that the person to whom he was offering these 
civilities was destined to become the most famous man 
in American history, if not in the history of the world. 
The young stranger did not understand French, and 
hence had to speak through an interpreter. He intro- 
duced himself as Major George Washington, adjutant- 



74 The Key to the Ohio Valley 

general of the Virginian militia, and handed to St. Pierre 
a letter which he had brought from Robert Dinwiddle, 
the governor of the colony. 

The commandant took the letter and went into the 
next room to read it. It was not the kind of letter to 
awaken pleasant feelings. It ran in substance somewhat 
in this way : " I must desire you to acquaint me by whose 
authority and instructions you have lately marched from 
Canada with an armed force, and invaded the king of 
Great Britain's territories. It becomes my duty to require 
your peaceable departure, and to demand that you shall 
forbear carrying out a purpose which is so likely to 
destroy the harmony and good feeling now existing be- 
tween my king and yours. I persuade myself that you 
will receive and entertain Major Washington with the 
candor and poHteness natural to your nation ; and it will 
give me the greatest satisfaction if you will return with 
him an answer suitable to my wishes for a very long 
and lasting peace between us." 

St. Pierre read the letter at his leisure, and delayed 
his answer for three days. In the meanwhile he enter- 
tained young Washington with the same hospitality and 
kindness that he would have given an honored friend 
and guest. On the fourth day his reply was ready. In 
the letter which he then handed to Washington he gave 
Governor Dinwiddle to understand that he expected to 
hold the posts over which he had been given command, 
and that no threats or demands on the part of English- 
men or Virginians would cause him to withdraw from 
the territory which he had been directed to defend. 



Unexpected Visitors 75 

The whole matter, he said, would be referred to Gov- 
ernor Duqiiesne at Quebec. 

Major Washington took the letter and at once made 
ready to return homeward. You may imagine the scene 
as he bade the French commandant good-by, and rode 
out from the little fort of Le Boeuf. The weather has 
grown colder ; the soft slush has frozen into ice ; snow 
is falling ; a sharp northwest wind is roaring through 
the treetops and heaping up drifts in the valleys and 
among the fallen timber ; it is not a promising morning 
for beginning a journey of five hundred miles through a 
pathless wilderness. The stately, white-haired comman- 
dant, standing in the doorway, salutes his departing guest. 

" My best wishes go with you, Major Washington ; but 
I fear that your horses will not be able to carry you 
far over this rough, snow-covered country." 

" If they fail us, sir, we shall then get forward on foot. 
Adieu." 

" Adieu ! and may God preserve you." 

And the little company files slowly across the clearing, 
their backs to the wind, their feet slipping on the treacher- 
ous ice, their eyes blinded by the eddying snow. They 
enter the woods, and are seen no more by Legardeur St. 
Pierre and the garrison at Fort le Boeuf. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 
I. THE WILDERNESS JOURNEY 

THE backwoodsman who rode with Major Washington 
to Fort le Boeuf, and who broke the path before 
him on his departure homeward, was none other than our 
old acquaintance Christopher Gist. His practiced eye 
could distinguish the easiest path where any other could 
see only an untracked waste of forest and bog and snow- 
covered marshes. Close behind him rode Washington, 
silent but alert ; and following at a short distance were 
the white men with the pack horses. The Indians 
who had guided them to the fort straggled sulkily in the 
rear, and seemed in no mind to be of further service to 
the party. The French soldiers had shown them great 
kindness during their four days' stay at Le Boeuf, giving 
them presents, and dosing them with brandy, and making 
them fine promises in case they should desert the English. 
Before they had gone a mile half their number had 
turned back to the cozy shelter of the fort. 

Through the dense woods and tangled thickets, now 
wading in deep snowdrifts, now floundering in half- 
frozen mud, now stumbling in pitfalls or struggling 
through broken ice, Washington and his companions made 
their slow way back to the village of Venango. They 
had stopped at this place on their way up, and had been 

76 



TJic Wilderness Journey 



77 



royally entertained by young Joncaire who told Washing- 
ton that the French were going to hold the Ohio Valley 
in spite of all that the English coidd do. They were 
now received a second time, 
and Joncaire, with the 
politeness which he had 
learned from his French 
kinsfolk, did all that he 
could to make them com- 
fortable for the night. 

In the morning Wash- 
ington discovered that his 
horses were really unfit to 
be taken farther. The hard 
journey through the wintry 
woods had utterly broken 
them down. He therefore 
left them at Venango with 
their drivers, and with Gist 
as his only companion, 
pushed forward on foot. 

Of Washington's perilous 
midwinter journey among 
the snow-covered hills and 
frozen streams of western 
Pennsylvania, the story has 

often been told, and I need not repeat it here. ^....^ ^ 

from the intense cold, and in constant danger from the 
Indians, the brave young officer and the sturdy backwoods- 
man tramped through the desolate forest, their course being 




"Through the desolate forest 

Sufferin! 



yS George WasJiington 

toward the south. They passed the forks of the Ohio, and, 

stumbling through the snow for yet seven miles, safely 

reached the house of the trader Fraser, who, after leaving 

Venango, had established himself here, near the 
1754 

banks of the Monongahela. Late in January, 

Washington was back in Virginia telling Governor Din- 
widdle of his adventures and of his reception by Le- 
gardeur de St. Pierre. 



II. THE FIRST ENCOUNTER 

The governor now saw plainly that if the English ex- 
pected to hold the Ohio Country they must fight for it. 
He began at once to prepare for the struggle. *' It will 
be easier to keep the French out at the beginning than 
to dislodge them after they have gotten in," he said. He 
sent messages to the governors of the other English colo- 
nies asking them to help him. But these messages were 
not received with the favor which he expected. The 
colonists of Pennsylvania, New York, and Maryland seemed 
to care but little who possessed the Ohio Valley. " The 
whole trouble," said they, ** is on account of the Ohio 
Company. Shall we risk entering into a bloody war, 
merely to help a few rich Virginians who want to speculate 
in western lands } " Pennsylvania was ready to protect 
her own traders in the West, and so was New York; but 
all dreaded to provoke a border war. 

Within a month after Washington's return, a small 
body of Virginians pushed on to the forks of the Ohio 
and began to build a stockade there ; but hardly had the 



The First Encountc7' 79 

first logs been put in place when word came that a 
party of French and Indians were marching upon them 
from Fort le Boeuf. The officer in command of the 
Virginians now suddenly remembered that his family 
needed him at home ; and the unfinished stockade was 
left in charge of a young ensign. When the enemy 
appeared with eighteen small cannon and a great host 
of yelling Indians, what could the ensign do but surrender 
on the best terms he could get ? 

The prisoners marched out of the stockade, laid down 
their arms, and were allowed to go back to Virginia 
unharmed. The French began at once to complete 
the fort, naming it Fort Duquesne, in honor of the 
governor of Canada. 

While these things were going on. Major George 
Washington at the head of a hundred and fifty militiamen 
was hastening to the succor of the little stockade. He 
heard of its surrender while he was still on the farther side 
of the mountains. *' How dare these Frenchmen attack a 
fort protected by the flag of Great Britain!" cried Din- 
widdle, when the news was carried back to Virginia. '' The 
war has already begun, and it is they who have been the 
aggressors." 

Washington immediately set to work to clear a road 
through the wilderness and over the mountains. It was 
to extend from the upper waters of the Potomac to a 
point on the Monongahela where the Ohio Company had 
lately set up a storehouse ; and it was designed to aid 
communication between the Virginia settlements and the 
western frontier, and especially the transit of the militia 



So George Washiugtojt 

to the disputed territory. For several days the soldiers 
were more accustomed to the ax than to the rifle, and 
soon a long passageway was cleared through the woods. 
It is worth remembering that this road was the first 
wagonway ever made from the Atlantic slope to the 
borders of the Old Northwest. It was in use for more 
than sixty years, and .a part of its course may still be 
traced among the mountains. 

Major Washington with his raw recruits pushed for- 
ward, closely following the roadmakers. Before the 
middle of May he reached a place called Great Meadows, 
near the Youghiogheny, a tributary of the Monongahela. 
He there met Christopher Gist, who told him that fifty 
French soldiers, with perhaps a larger body of Indians, 
were lurking in the forest not far away. A chief of 
the Mingoes, who was called Half-King and who still 
remained friendly to the English, also sent him word 
that a strong force of the enemy was in the neighbor- 
hood. Washington therefore brought all his supplies 
together in a level, open space, and threw up some 
slight intrenchments about them. He then cleared away 
the bushes for some distance around and made what he 
called **a charming field for an encounter." 

He was only twenty-two years old, and was naturally 
impetuous and anxious for a fight. The next day he went 
out in search of the enemy. He soon came upon a com- 
pany of thirty-three Frenchmen who were resting in 
fancied security in a rocky ravine. The Frenchmen, taken 
by surprise, sprang to their feet and tried to escape ; but 
the Virginians were too quick for them. Washington 



Fort Necessity 8 1 

ordered his men to fire upon the fleeing enemy. Jumon- 
ville, the leader of the party, and nine of his followers 
fell dead. Twenty-two others were captured, and only 
one escaped. 

Such was the beginning of the long war for the posses- 
sion of the Ohio Valley, and in the end for the entire 
Northwest — a war which was to involve the leading 
nations of Europe, change the geography of our conti- 
nent, and determine in a large measure the destiny of 
the American people. It is interesting to remember that 
the man who directed the first action in the great 
struo:o:le was George Washington. 



III. FORT NECESSITY 

The news of the fight, if fight it can be called, was car- 
ried quickly to Fort Duquesne and thence by way of the 
French posts to Canada. Frenchmen everywhere were 
horrified and indignant when they heard of this cold- 
blooded massacre, as they called it. The Chevalier de 
Villiers, a brother of Jumonville, hastened to Fort Du- 
quesne, having a large following of Indians from all the 
friendly tribes of Canada and the Northwest. There he 
found five hundred Frenchmen and many Ohio Indians, all 
eager to march against the invading Virginians. 

A great council was called, and the commandant made 
a stirring speech to the savage chiefs. **The English 
have murdered my children," he said ; '' my heart is sick ; 
to-morrow I shall send my French soldiers to take revenge. 
By this belt of wampum, I invite you all to join your 

CONO. O.N.W. — 6 



82 



George Washington 



French father and help him crush the assassins." The 
Indians yelled their approval; and Villiers with a motley 
army of nearly a thousand men was soon on the march. 

In the meanwhile, Washington's force had been in- 
creased to about three hundred men ; and hearing that 

the French were coming, 
he fell back to Great 
Meadows and began to 
strengthen the intrench- 
ments he had made. He 
called the place Fort Ne- 
cessity, and determined 
to wait there for the com- 
ing of the enemy. The 
fort was a flimsy affair, 
built of logs and earth, and 
little fitted to withstand 
any determined attack. 

On the 3d of July the 
French and Indians under 
Villiers came up and 
surrounded the fort. All 
day long, in the midst 
of a drizzling rain, there 
was sharp fighting. The men in the fort defended them- 
selves as well as they could, but the odds were against 
them. The earthworks were soon nothing but heaps of 
soft mud, and the riflemen in the ditches stood knee deep 
in water. Before night the Virginians had lost in killed 
and wounded about eighty men. 




" ' I invite you all to join your French 
father ' " 



Fort Dnqiicsnc 83 

At eight o'clock Villiers sent an officer to propose a 
parley. Washington was glad of this, for he felt that he 
could not hold out much longer. He was willing to sur- 
render on the best terms that he could get ; and the 
French, who were none too sure of their Indian helpers, 
were anxious to end the siege as quickly as possible. Under 
these circumstances the commanders were not long in 
coming to an agreement. The fort was to be surrendered, 
and Vilhers was to protect the Virginians from the 
vengeance of his savage allies. Washington was to give 
hostages for the safe return of the prisoners he had taken 
in the former fight, and he with his men were then to be 
permitted to return home with ''the honors of war." 

It was on the 4th of July, just twenty-two years before 
the Declaration of Independence was made at Philadelphia, 
that Major Washington and his Virginia militia- 
men marched out of Fort Necessity and abandoned 
the defense of the Ohio Valley. Although repulsed, the 
young commander did not feel that he had been defeated, 
and he was determined to find some opportunity to retrieve 
his losses. As for the British government, it began at 
once to prepare for the war which was now no longer 
to be postponed. 



IV. FORT DUQUESNE 

After their victory over the Virginia militiamen at 
Great Meadows, the French and Indians under Villiers 
returned in triumph to Fort Duquesne. 

" This is but the beginning of the contest," said Contre- 



84 



George WasJiingtoii 



coeur, the newly arrived commandant of the post. *'We 
hold the key to the Ohio Valley and the West. We must 
strengthen it, and not be driven out by the English when 
they return in greater force, as they surely will." 

And he put every Frenchman to work, cutting down 
trees, hewing logs, digging ditches, building walls, clear- 
ing the ground. In a few weeks the little stockade was 




•• The little stockade was transformed into a small but sturdy tortress 

transformed into a small but sturdy fortress equal in 
strength to any other on the frontier. It was flanked on 
two sides by the river and on the other by a wide 
ditch. Its ramparts were of hewed logs and earthworks 
of great thickness ; and at each of its four corners was 
a strong bastion with brass cannon peeping out at the 
loopholes. The only entrance was by a drawbridge and 
narrow gateway on the landward side. The river side 
was protected by high paHsades of tree trunks set close 



Fort Diiqiicsiic <S5 

together, with loopholes so arranged as to cover every 
approach. All the trees and underbrush within rifle shot 
of the fort were cleared away, and in the open space some 
log huts were built for such of the troops as could not be 
quartered in the barracks inside the walls. 

At the edge of the woods the Indians pitched their bark 
wigwams ; and within easy call from the fort eight hundred 
warriors waited impatiently for the coming of the English. 
Among these Indians were fighting men from all the large 
western tribes — Hurons, Ottawas, Pottawattomies, and 
Chippewas from the region of the lakes, and Shawnees, 
Delawares, and Mingoes from the valley of the Ohio. The 
Ottawas were led by a young chief of great daring whose 
name was Pontiac ; while their neighbors, the Chippewas, 
followed the lead of Charles Langlade, a half-breed 
woods ranger and trader from Mackinac. In the fort 
were several French officers who had spent years of 
service in the wilderness — St. Ange, who was to be the 
last commandant of Fort Chartres, Beaujeu, a captain of 
known courage, and others whose names are now forgotten. 

The autumn passed, and the French soldiers at Fort 
Duquesne had nothing to do but to strengthen their 
defenses and wait. The long, cold winter was 
followed by an early spring, and the clearings 
about the fort were planted with corn and pumpkins. 
The Indians, growing tired of inaction, began to talk of 
returning to their homes. Contrecoeur and his officers 
could scarcely persuade them to wait a little longer for 
the great affray that would surely take place before the 
ending of the summer. 



S6 George Washington 



V. BRADDOCK 



At last, in June, some scouts of the Delawares arrived 
from the Potomac, and brought news that a grand army 
of real English soldiers commanded by a real 
English general was marching slowly from the 
Virginia frontier toward Fort Duquesne. The name of 
the English general was Edward Braddock, and he had 
gained renown on more than one battlefield in Europe ; 
but, with all his bravery, he was overbearing, obstinate, 
and some say brutal. He knew nothing at all about 
Indian methods of fighting. He had boasted that with 
his two regiments of regulars he would vanquish any 
force that the French and Indians could bring against 
him, and he had refused to listen to Dr. Franklin and 
Major Washington when they ventured to hint that the 
Indians had certain ways of fighting that were different 
from those practiced by Europeans. 

The Delaware scouts reported to Contrecoeur that the 
English soldiers made a fine show, dressed in bright red 
and moving in a long, solid column through the woods. 
How easy it would be to skulk in the thickets and, from 
safe hiding places, pick off these redcoats one at a time 
like pigeons from a flock ! But there were other men in 
the army more to be feared than Braddock's soldiers from 
beyond the sea. These were the nine companies of Vir- 
ginia militiamen, dressed in dull blue or brown, who 
marched wherever they were allowed, and were plainly 
looked down upon and despised by the pompous general. 



Braddock 



87 



The progress of the army was very s](nv. In front 
went a eompany of woodsmen with their axes, clearing 
a narrow roadway for the wagons and horses. The grand 
army followed, with its baggage train and camp equip- 
ments, stretching out in a narrow line 
three or four miles in length. Like a 
great red snake creeping among the 
trees, it moved cautiously but confidently 
onward. At the rate it was going it 
would not reach the Monongahela before 
the middle of summer. 

Slowly as the army marched, the 
news of its coming caused great alarm 
at Fort Duquesne. What could a hand- 
ful of Frenchmen and a thousand wild 
Indians do to oppose so large a force 
of trained soldiers .'* Should they wait 
for Braddock to besiege the fort, and 
then trust to fortune for the result t 
Or should they fall back to Fort le 
Boeuf and leave the key to the Ohio 
Valley in the hands of the English } 
The officers were still debating these 
questions when, on the 8th of July, the scouts brought 
word that the army was within less than twenty miles 
of the fort. 

"We must go out and meet it! " cried Captain Beaujeu. 
"These English know nothing about our way of fighting. 
We must lay a trap for them." 

And then he explained his plan of forming an ambus- 




The key to the Ohio 
Valley" 



88 



George Washington 



nrm 



cade, in some well-chosen spot, and shooting the redcoats 
as they marched unwittingly into it. The French officers 
and soldiers applauded, but the Indians hung back and 
made excuses. '* Does our father want to die } " they 

said ; "■ and does he want to 
see us slain also "i " 

That night all the Indian 
chiefs sat in council and talked 
over the matter for a long time. 
In the morning they went into 
the fort and told the officers 
that they had decided to return 
to their hunting grounds in the 
West. 

** What ! " cried Beaujeu. 
" Will you leave your father 
here to die by the hands of 
the English ? I have made up 
my mind to go out and meet 
them. Will you let me go 
alone } " 

He knew how to touch their 
savage pride. He came before 
them dressed as an Indian brave ; his words roused their 
courage and shamed their cowardly fears. Before he 
had ended his speech every chief was ready to follow 
him. Kegs of powder and a plentiful supply of bullets 
were set outside of the gate, and six hundred and thirty- 
five Indians, now wild with excitement, crowded forward 
and helped themselves to ammunition. Then, hooting and 




There came out of the woods 
a runner " 



Braddock 89 

yelling, they marched off into the woods, with l^eaujeu and 
two hundred and fifty l^^renchnien and Canadians. The 
commandant, Contrecoeur, with a few French soldiers and 
some Indians, remained in the fort. 

At about the middle of the afternoon there came out of 
the woods a runner, all breathless and covered with dust 
and blood. And when he was brought before Contre- 
coeur he told a story which at once changed all dread into 
joy. He said that at a spot about seven miles from the 
fort, and near the right bank of the Monongahela, the 
English had fallen into the ambush, which Beaujeu had 
set for them, and that they had been terribly defeated. 

The details of the bloody battle were learned afterward. 
As Braddock and his army were moving through a narrow 
pass in the forest, they were suddenly fired upon by unseen 
foes lying hidden among the trees and in the tangled 
thickets. They could not return the fire, because no foe 
could be seen. The Virginia militiamen intrenched them- 
selves behind logs and rocks and fought like very Indians. 
But the redcoated regulars, unused to this manner of 
warfare, huddled together like frightened sheep and were 
shot down without mercy. Braddock dashed hither and 
thither, vainly trying to rally his troops. Four horses 
were shot under him, and then he himself was mortally 
wounded. The young major from Virginia, George 
Washington, was the most conspicuous figure on the 
field of carnage. He was the mark for more than one 
Indian rifle, his coat was pierced with bullets, and yet, 
strange to say, he was unhurt. 

After the uneven fight had been kept u}) for nearly 



go 



George 



WasJiiugton 



three hours, such of the Enghsh soldiers as were still 
alive fled in wild panic across the river and were followed 
by the Virginians. The French, having lost their leader 
Beaujeu, made no attempt to pursue them, but hastened 
back to the fort. The Indians, eager for plunder and the 
scalps of the dead and dying, tarried on the field of battle 
and made no effort to prevent the escape of their foes. 




"The most conspicuous figure on the field of carnage" 

At about sunset they began to return in straggling bands 
to the fort. They carried with them about a dozen pris- 
oners, whom they tortured and burned to death that 
same night on the bank of the Allegheny within plain 
sight of Fort Duquesne. 

Of nearly fifteen hundred officers and men who had 
marched through the mountains with Braddock, only four 
hundred and fifty returned unharmed to Virginia. The 



Brad dock 91 

attempt to win the Northwest by direct seizure was given 
up. The remainder of the conflict was to be carried on in 
places far remote from the territory in dispute. The war 
was to involve other questions and issues, and in the end 
it would lead to results more far reaching and decisive 
than either French or English could have foreseen. 

It is not for us to follow the progress of that war 
with its varying fortunes. Now and then the French 
seemed to gain some advantage, but in truth it was a 
losing game to them from the beginning. Three years 
after Braddock's memorable defeat another body of 
British soldiers and Virginia reirulars marched 
over the Alleghanies to attempt the conquest of 
the key to the Ohio Valley. The expedition was conducted 
by General Forbes, a British officer of known ability and 
courage ; and he was supported by Colonel Bouquet of the 
English army and by Colonel George Washington in com- 
mand of two thousand Virginians. The army was four 
months in marching from Philadelphia to the Monongahela. 
At length, after passing the field where the bones of Brad- 
dock's men still lay unburied, it arrived within sight of 
Fort Duquesne late in November. The blockhouses and 
the stockade were in ruins. They had been blown up and 
abandoned by the French garrison who, having been 
deserted by their Indian allies, had fled in boats down the 
Ohio. Washington and his men took possession of the 
place and began to rebuild the works ; and General Forbes 
renamed the post, calling it Fort Pitt in honor of Sir William 
Pitt who had ])lanned the campaign. The valley of the 
Ohio was at last in the grasp of the English. 



HOW THE COUNTRY WAS HELD BY 
ENGLAND 

THE GREAT CONSPIRACY 
I. THE NAPOLEON OF THE WILDERNESS 



T 



HE long war between the English and the French 

came to an end on the 8th of September, 1760. On 

that day the Marquis de Vaudreuil surrendered Montreal 

to the English, and with it the whole of Canada 
1760 

and the Great Lakes and the country adjoining 

them. England had gained much more than her rulers 

had expected. France had lost everything. 

The English made all haste to get control of their new 
possessions. Within a week after the fall of Montreal, 
Major Robert Rogers, a famous border ranger, was sent 
with two hundred men to receive the surrender of the 
French posts on the lakes. The party traveled in whale- 
boats, skirting the southern shore of Lake Erie. From 
Presque Isle to Detroit they saw not a single human habi- 
tation ; all that region was still the great hunting ground 
of the Indians, as savagely wild as when La Salle had 
first visited it more than ninety years before. 

The weather was damp and chilly, and the boatmen 
made but slow progress through drizzling rain and mis- 

92 



Tlic Napoleon of tJic Wildcrucss 



93 



leading fogs. One day they stopped to rest at the mouth 
of an unknown river supposed to be not far from the site 
of the present city of Cleveland. Major Rogers had 
scarcely stepped on shore when he was met by some 
Indian chiefs who wished to* speak with him. 

'* We are come from Pontiac, 
the king and lord of this coun- 
try," said they. " He himself 
is near at hand and desires that 
you wait for him ; for he would 
like to see you with his own 
eyes." 

In a short time Pontiac made 
his appearance. He was a man 
about fifty years of age ; 
his face was dark and his 
expression dignified. He 
was dressed as a savage — 
that is, with the exception 
of a broad girdle about his 
loins, he was not dressed at 
all. He greeted the Eng- 
Hsh leader very haughtily, 
and demanded what busi- 
ness the soldiers had in that country, and why they had 
dared enter it without his leave. 

Rogers answered that they had not come with any 
unfriendliness toward the Indians, but to remove the 
French, who had always been the cause of trouble between 
the Enirlish and their red brothers. 




" ' 1 stand in your path ' 



94 TIic Great Coiispu'acy 

" I stand in your path," said Pontiac. *' I stand in your 
path, and you need go no farther until I give you leave." 
He then handed the major a string of wampum in token 
of friendship, and took his leave for the day, saying, "If 
there is anything in the country that you need, my war- 
riors shall get it for you." 

The next morning the chief came again to the encamp- 
ment, and smoked the calumet with Rogers. He seemed 
to be in a very friendly humor, and said that he would 
permit the Englishmen to go forward to Detroit, and take 
possession of the fort. He also sent runners in advance 
to several Indian bands along the lake shore, to give 
notice that it was by his permission that Major Rogers 
and his men had entered the country. '* He attended me 
constantly until I arrived at Detroit," says Rogers, " and 
was the means of preserving the detachment from the 
fury of the Indians who had assembled at the mouth of 
the strait to cut us off." 

Pontiac was the head chief of the Ottawas, most of 
whom were then living in the southern peninsula of Michi- 
gan. Through the whole of the late war he had been the 
friend and strong ally of the French. It is said that he 
was present when Washington surrendered at Fort Neces- 
sity, and that he afterward took an active part in the 
defeat of General Braddock. Just why he seemed so 
ready to transfer his friendship to the English we shall 
never learn. But we know that he was shrewd and had 
ambitious projects of his own. Perhaps he already had 
dreams of making himself the leader of a great Indian 
confederacy. What could be more natural than that he 



The Napoleon of the Wilderness 95 

should wish to be on the side of the victors in the war 
that was just ended? 

Major Rogers, with his two hundred followers, reached 
Detroit on the 29th of November, and on the afternoon of 
the same day the fleur de lis of France was hauled down 
from the flagstaff on the fort, and the cross of St. George 
was hoisted in its place. The French soldiers 
and the Canadian militia laid down their arms, 
while seven hundred savages, lately the alHes of France, 
danced and yelled as though they themselves were the 
victors celebrating their triumph over the defeated foe. 

Detroit was at that time the most important of all the 
lake ports. It was a kind of garden spot in the midst of 
the savage wilderness. The fort was a large inclosure of 
some thirty acres, surrounded by strong palisades twenty- 
five feet high. In this inclosure were about eighty build- 
ings, including the soldiers' barracks and a large council 
house. Above and below, on both banks of the river, 
were the farms and gardens of the French settlers, 
while back of these stretched the wild forest, with its 
giant trees and trackless mazes of underbrush. On the 
left-hand shore, at some distance below the fort, was a 
straggling village of Pottawattomies, whose ancestors had 
once lived in the Green Bay region. On the opposite 
shore were the bark lodges and corn patches of the Wyan- 
dots, descendants of the ancient Hurons. 

Above the French settlement, but on the shore opposite 
the fort, was the chief village of the Ottawas ; and a little 
beyond, on the Isle de la Peche, was the oven-shaped 
cabin of Pontiac, " the king and lord of all this country." 



96 The Gnat Conspiracy 

Just below Pontiac's island, and shielding it from the view 
ot the soldiers in the fort, was the larger Isle au Cochon 
(now called Belle Isle), covered for the most part with 
thick underwoods and forest trees. 

As soon as the fort was well in the hands of its new 
masters, Major Rogers returned to the East, leaving the 
post in charge of Captain Campbell, who was soon after- 
ward succeeded by Major Gladwyn. A small party of 
English soldiers was sent out to secure and hold the French 
fort at the forks of the Maumee, where now stands the city 
of Fort Wayne ; and another detachment went northward 
to receive the surrender of Mackinac and of the Sault 
Sainte Marie. 

To the Indians, who had all their lives enjoyed the 
friendship of the French, this coming of the Enghsh was 
by no means a pleasant event. It was like exchanging 
kind neighbors for untrustworthy strangers. *' When the 
French came among us," said a Chippewa chief, "they 
came and kissed us — they called us children, and we 
found them fathers ; we lived like children in the same 
lodge." It was not so with the EngHsh. They came as 
masters, looking upon the savages as beings of a lower 
order who had no rights of their own. To the haughty 
Pontiac this was galling and not to be borne. He saw 
that he could expect nothing from a people who felt no 
sympathy with his race, and whose only object was to 
gain wealth and power for themselves. ** The conduct of 
the French," he declared, ''never gave rise to suspicion; 
but the conduct of the English never gives rest to it." 

For a time he brooded over the matter, sitting moodily 



TJic Napolcoi of tJic Wildcnicss 97 

in his wigwam or wandering alone in the woods. Then 
he decided to unite all the Indian trihes in one grand 
uprising against the English. lie began by making 
speeches. He visited the different villages throughout 
the Northwest, and by his strong power of persuasion 
stirred up in every warrior's breast fierce hatred for the 
English and savage desire for revenge. He reminded 
the tribes of their former happiness with their brothers, 
the French, and told them of the wrongs which they 
would suffer from the English. He declared that their 
father, the king of France, was only waiting for them to 
try to help themselves, when he would hasten his soldiers 
forward to aid them. He dwelt upon the number and 
prowess of the tribes that would join him, and spoke of 
the ease with which they could crush the English, and of 
the joy with which they would welcome the return of the 
French. 

"The Great Spirit has bidden me tell you," he said to 
his followers, " that you must not drink the Englishman's 
rum, and that you must cast away the blankets you have 
bought from him, and whatever else he has given you to 
make you weak and cowardly." And then he told them 
of a vision which a Delaware chief had had. " The Great 
Spirit said to him : ' Why do you suffer these dogs in red 
coats to enter your country and take the lands I have 
given to you } Drive them from it. Wipe them from the 
face of the earth ; and then when you are in trouble, I 
will help you.' " 

Nor did Pontiac end with merely arousing his hearers 
against the English. He urged them to return to their 

CONQ. O.N.W. — 7 



98 TJie Great Conspiracy 

primitive habits of barbarism. ** My children," he said, 
"you have forgotten the customs of your forefathers. 
Why do you not clothe yourselves in skins, as they did, 
and use the bows and arrows and stone-pointed lances 
which they used .? You have bought guns, knives, kettles, 
and blankets from the white men ; and, what is worse, you 
have drunk the poison fire water which turns you into 
fools. Fling all these things away ! Live as your wise 
forefathers lived in the days that are gone ! " 

The pleadings, commands, and fiery eloquence of Pon- 
tiac moved the Indians as they had never been moved 
before. All the tribes from the Great Lakes southward 
to the Tennessee, and from the Iroquois country westward 
to the Mississippi, joined themselves in one great league 
for the destruction of the English. 

Of this league Pontiac was the absolute master and 
director. He knew where every English post was situ- 
ated, and had learned all about its strength. He there- 
fore assigned to each chief his particular place and the 
work which he was expected to do. The destruction of 
the posts on the St. Joseph and the Wabash was assigned 
to the western Indians, that of the forts south of Lake 
Erie to various bands of Iroquois, that of Mackinac and 
the Sault to the Chippewas and Wyandots, that of Detroit 
to himself and his immediate followers. Never did any 
commander display more skill or more determined energy 
than did Pontiac in organizing this great movement for 
the union of all the tribes against the encroachments of a 
stronger race. He has been called, and not without 
reason, the Napoleon of the wilderness. 



The Massacre at Mackinac 99 

11. THE MASSACRE AT MACKINAC 

The order was given that upon the same day — a day 

in May — every English post west of Niagara should be 

attacked and destroyed. It was to be a work of 

1763 
extermination, and not an Englishman was to be 

spared. The traders in the Indian villages were the first 

to suffer. Of these there were more than a hundred and 

twenty among the different tribes, and only two or three 

escaped with their lives. Most of the forts were captured 

as Pontiac had planned. In some, the garrisons were 

taken wholly by surprise and all were massacred. At 

Presque Isle on Lake Erie the fort was bravely defended 

for two days. The Indians having at last undermined it 

and laid a train ready for blowing it up, the garrison was 

obliged to surrender ; some of the prisoners were killed at 

once, and others were carried captive to the Indian towns 

in the Northwest. 

Fort Pitt, at the forks of the Ohio, was besieged for 
nearly three months. At length a detachment of British 
soldiers commanded by Colonel Bouquet was ordered to 
its succor. After hard fighting and the loss of a hundred 
men. Bouquet gallantly forced his way to the fort, gave 
relief to the beleaguered garrison, and scattered the be- 
sieging savages. 

In the Northwest, dreadful scenes were being enacted. 
Next to Detroit, Mackinac was then the most important of 
all the posts on the lakes. The old trading post and fort at 
Point St. Ignace had been abandoned several years before, 
and a new fort, known as Fort Mackinac, had been built on 
L.ofC. 



lOO The Great Conspiracy 

the south side of the strait. Why this change had been 
made it is impossible to say, but the new Mackinac, hke 
the old, was long the favorite place of resort for voyageurs 
and woods rangers, and the point whence the traders 
shipped their furs to the eastern markets. 

The stockade, which stood near the shore, inclosed 
nearly two acres ; and within it were about thirty houses, 
including the soldiers' barracks, some storerooms, and the 
dwellings of a few Canadian families. There were bas- 
tions at the corners of the stockade, and on each of two 
of these a small brass cannon was mounted. The British 
garrison consisted of thirty-five men commanded by Cap- 
tain Etherington. There were also in the fort some traders, 
and among them Alexander Henry, the first English mer- 
chant to venture into that remote and unfriendly region. 

The Chippewas, whose principal village was then on the 
island of Mackinac, had always hated the English. Al- 
though their tribe had dwelt for several generations in the 
immediate neighborhood of the French posts, they were 
still as savage as their ancestors whom Jean Nicolet had 
discovered catching fish from the rapids of the Sainte 
Marie. Their neighbors, the Ottawas, had taken more 
readily to civilized ways ; for they lived in log houses, cul- 
tivated little patches of ground, and ardently professed the 
Catholic faith. All had been warmly attached to the 
French, and all viewed the coming of the English with 
marked disapproval. 

These bands had chiefs of their own and did not 
acknowledge the authority of Pontiac. But when his 
runners came to them bearing his war belt of black and 



The Massacre at Mackinac 1 01 

purple wampum, they very readily promised to join in the 

great conspiracy. The savage Chippewas were wrought 

up to a high pitch of excitement, and they determined to 

destroy the hated English in their own way and without 

the help of the Ottawas. 

The month of May had passed, and already the work of 

destruction had begun. The garrison at Mackinac were 

living in careless ease and security, for they had 

I "763 
heard no news from the south, and they were in 

ignorance of the great uprising. Their savage neighbors, 

however, knew what was going on, and were only biding 

their time to strike the decisive blow. Some friendly 

Canadians had warned Captain Etherington that the 

Indians were plotting trouble; and one had brought him 

word that they were getting ready to destroy all the 

forts on the lakes. But the foolish, conceited captain 

told them that he had no fear of Indians, and advised 

them to go about their own business. He even threatened 

to punish the next person who should whisper any such 

stories in his hearing. 

A chief whose name was Wawatam, and who was the 

sworn friend of Henry, the English trader, came into the 

fort one day and with signs of the deepest distress asked 

Henry if the English had heard any bad news. He then 

besought the trader to leave the fort with him and go to 

the Sault Sainte Marie ; '' For there are strange Indians 

in this neighborhood," said he, "and it is not safe for you 

here." When Henry treated his warning with lightness and 

refused to leave the fort, the chief went sadly away, the 

tears rolling down his dusky cheeks. 



102 TJic Great Conspiracy 

The 4th of June was a hoHday at Mackinac, for it was 
the birthday of the EngUsh king. Early in the morn- 
ing the Chippewas paddled over from their island and 
invited the officers and soldiers to come out and see a 
game of "baggatiway," or Indian ball, that was to be 
played between their own warriors and a party of visiting 
Sacs. They said that a great wager had been made, to be 
paid to the victorious party, and they promised Captain 
Etherington that he should see rare sport. 

The day was warm and sultry. The soldiers were 
relieved from duty. The gates of the stockade were 
thrown wide open, and officers and men stood carelessly 
around watching the progress of the game. Indians and 
whites mingled freely in the crowds that were lounging in 
the shade of the tall palisades. The Chippewa squaws were 
wrapped in huge blankets as though it were a midwinter 
day ; but the English were too deeply interested in the 
game to take notice of this. Had any person lifted one 
of these blankets he might have seen a frightful array of 
knives and tomahawks, all ready to be handed to those 
who were to take part in the bloody work of the day. 

The game of baggatiway, called *' lacrosse " by the 
French, was played with a ball and bats. At either end of 
the ground a tall post was planted as a goal ; and the object 
of each party was to drive the ball to the post opposite its 
own. In such a game there was necessarily much noise 
and violence. On either side were hundreds of lithe sav- 
ages, each carrying a bat of a peculiar form, and running 
and struggling to gain possession of the ball. All were 
naked or nearly so, their long black hair streaming in the 



TJic Massacre at Mackijiac 



103 



wind, and their copper-colored bodies glistening in the 
sun. It often happened, of course, that the ball could not 
be driven directly toward the desired goal, and then it was 
knocked sideways or anywhere that would put it in a 
good position ; and the whole crowd of yelling, struggling 
savages ran after it. 

Captain I^therington was with his officers outside of the 




"The ball was thrown within the stockade " 

fort, watching the game. He was in fine spirits, and to 
please the Chippewas had made a heavy wager in their 
favor. Several warriors were lounging carelessly about 
the gate, seeming to be deeply interested in the game. 
The soldiers were scattered here and there, and all were 
unarmed. 

Suddenly, as if by accident, the ball was thrown 
within the stockade. With loud shouts both Chippewas 
and Sacs rushed through the gate as though in pursuit 



I04 TJic Great Conspiracy 

of it ; but no sooner were they within the fort than the 
shouts were changed to dreadful war whoops. Henry, 
the fur trader, who was in his own room writing, was 
startled at the sound. He rushed to his window and 
looked out. All within the stockade and without was in 
the wildest confusion. He saw the savages snatch their 
weapons from the waiting squaws and begin the work of 
slaughter. Without the power to help any one, he beheld 
his dearest friends cut down and scalped and their bodies 
mangled in the most horrible manner. Not one EngHsh- 
man escaped. The captain, a few of his officers, and 
some traders were taken as prisoners, but all the rest were 
soon slain. The French and Canadians were unharmed, 
and several stood looking upon the massacre with much 
the same interest as that with which they had watched 
the game of ball. 

Henry hastened to conceal himself in the garret of a 
half-breed Canadian, — the same Charles Langlade who 
had led the Chippewas at the time of Braddock's defeat. 
He thus escaped the first wild rage of the savages, but 
on the following day he was discovered and dragged 
from his hiding place. The Indians crowded around 
him, brandishing their knives and threatening to kill 
him. Their fury had cooled, however, and they were 
not so bloodthirsty as they had been before the massacre. 
A Chippewa chief named Wenniway, who had taken a 
sudden and strange Hking for Henry, declared that he 
would adopt him in place of a brother who had been 
killed in battle ; and for a time the hfe of the trader 
was safe. 



TJic Massacre at Mackinac 105 

A few days after this the Chippewas took their pris- 
oners to one of their small villages which stood on the 
shore not far from the head of Thunder Bay. Here was 
the home of their great chief Minavavana. The captive 
soldiers were tied together, two and two, and led into the 
council house, where, with long ropes round their necks, 
they were exhibited like wild beasts, and subjected to the 
taunts and abuse of their captors. 

Henry and the other traders were also taken into the 
council house, but were spared this harsh treatment. The 
chiefs came in and sat down to enjoy the sight, and 
among them was Minavavana himself. Suddenly there 
was a movement by the door, and Henry was rejoiced to 
see his old friend Wawatam pushing his way through the 
crowd. Wawatam said not a word, but sat down and 
smoked with Minavavana and the chief who had taken 
Henry under his protection. After a time he arose and 
went out, but soon returned, followed by his squaw. 
The woman carried costly presents in each hand, and 
these she laid at the feet of the chiefs. Wawatam then 
made a speech. 

"Friends and kinsmen," he said, ''you all know what 
I feel. You have friends and brothers and children whom 
you love as yourselves ; and how would you feel if, like 
me, you beheld your dearest friend, your brother, in the 
condition of a slave — a slave exposed every moment to 
insult, and threatened with death .? This case, as you all 
know, is mine. You see before you my friend and brother 
among slaves — himself a slave ! 

** You all well know that, long before the war began, 



io6 



TJic Great Conspiracy 



I adopted him as my brother. From that moment he 
became one of my family, so that no change of circum- 
stances could break the cord which bound us together. 
He is my brother ; and because I am your relation, he is 
therefore your relation too. How then can he be your 
slave.?" 

He then said that, to avoid all disputes, he had brought 
to the chiefs the presents that were before him — presents 




Mackinac Island at the present tinae 



of sufficient value to buy off every claim that any man had 
on his brother. 

Minavavana then arose and spoke. He spoke of the 
bond of brotherhood between Wawatam and the English 
trader, accepted the present that had been brought, and 
ordered the prisoner to be released. Wawatam took Henry 
by the hand and led him to his own lodge. He gave him 



TJic Mcissaar at Afackiiiac 107 

food and drink, spread furs for him to lie upon, and 
treated him with every kindness. 

But it was several months before the trader was able to 
return to his own people. He was carried first to the 
island of Mackinac, where most of the Chippewa band 
had retired in fear of the vengeance of the EngUsh. 
Toward the end of summer all crossed over to the north 
end of Lake Huron, where they stopped awhile to fish. 
Then they scattered to their winter hunting grounds, each 
Indian with his family following the path that pleased 
him best. All winter long, Henry, in the garb of a 
wild Indian, trudged through the snows by the side of 
his brother Wawatam, hunting the moose and the elk. 
In the spring he contrived to make his way to the English 
settlements. 

The destruction of the fort at Mackinac led to many 
important changes. When peace came the English de- 
cided not to rebuild the fort on the mainland. They took 
possession of the cliff-bound island of Mackinac, near the 
middle of the strait, fortified it, and there established a 
new and more secure post. 

III. THE SIEGE OF DETROIT 

Detroit being the strongest and most important of all 
the posts, Pontiac had decided to make it his own prey. 
Its capture would require great skill and caution, 
and he was unwilling to intrust so hazardous an 
undertaking to any of his chiefs. Had no one betrayed 
his plot, he would probably have been successful, and his 
great conspiracy might have had a different ending. 



[o8 



TJie Great Conspiracy 



In the village of the Pottawattomies there was a beauti- 
ful girl of the Chippewa nation named Catherine. She 
was a great favorite at the fort, and had become attached 



to Major Gladwyn, the 
day before that which 
massacre, she carried to 



commandant. On the 
Pontiac had set for the 
the fort a pair of elkskin 
moccasins which she had 
made and ornamented for 
her white friend and pa- 
tron. She seemed to be in 
great trouble about some- 
thing, and tears were in her 
eyes as she put the present 
in the major's hands and 
hurried from the room. But 
she lingered long within 
the stockade as though 
anxious to say something 
and yet afraid to speak. 
At length Gladwyn him- 
self noticed her unusual 
conduct, and asked her 
what it was that was 
weighing on her mind. 
She at first refused to answer, but after much urging 
was persuaded to tell all that she knew of Pontiac's 
designs. 

She had learned everything. She told Gladwyn that 
early on the following day Pontiac would come to the fort 
and ask to hold a council with the Eno:Hsh officers. With 




She had learned everything 



The Siege of Detroit 109 

him would be sixty of his trustiest braves, each with a gun 
hidden under his blanket. On the outside of the stockade 
all the Indian warriors would be ready at a signal to rush 
into the fort. Pontiac would make a speech in the coun- 
cil, and at a certain moment would offer a peace belt of 
wami)um, holding it upside down. At this signal his 
braves would utter the war whoop, and fire upon the offi- 
cers ; the Indians at the gate would rush into the fort, and 
massacre the garrison ; every Englishman would be killed, 
but the French settlers would be spared. 

That same afternoon WiUiam Tucker, a soldier at the 
fort, came to Gladwyn with a similar story. Tucker had 
been captured by the Indians when he was a child, had 
been adopted by them, and had lived many years in the 
family of an Ottawa brave. He told Gladwyn that his 
Indian sister had warned him to leave the fort, saying that 
Pontiac intended, on the morrow, to seize it by strategy 
and destroy all its inmates. 

Gladwyn, thus doubly warned, began at once to guard 
against surprise. There were at that time a hundred and 
thirty soldiers and ofticers in the fort, besides several 
traders with their families and employees. Two small 
English vessels, the Gladwyn and the Beaver, were an- 
chored in the river, but too far away to be of any service. 
At sunset the great gates of the fort were closed. The 
guards were doubled ; the arms were examined ; the am- 
munition was arranged ; and every man in the fort was 
ordered to be ready for service at a moment's call. But 
as yet no one but Major Gladwyn and his officers knew 
the character of the threatened danger. 



no TJic Great Conspiracy 

The day had been rainy and the night was dark. The 
warriors of the Hurons and the Pottawattomies had left 
their own villages early in the evening, and gathered at the 
council ground of their great chief, in the Ottawa town 
opposite the Isle au Cochon. In the middle of the night 
the English officers, anxiously watching from the pali- 
sades, heard, far away, the booming sound of the Indian 
drum and the wild, discordant notes of the war song, 
mingled with hoots of defiance and yells of victory. All 
doubt was now at an end. They knew that the savages 
were dancing the war dance around their council fire, and 
making ready for the bloody work of the morrow. Every 
person in the fort was aroused and on the alert, and the 
hours until morning were full of anxiety and suspense. 

The day dawned upon a quiet and peaceful scene. The 
fog that was resting upon the river soon faded away, 
and then the sentinels saw a fleet of canoes crossing the 
river a mile or two above the fort. They moved slowly, 
as if heavily laden, and yet only two or three Indians 
could be seen in each. Every boat, in fact, was full of 
warriors, lying flat in the bottom so as to escape the 
notice of the English. 

Pontiac and his men landed at a point where they could 
not be seen from the fort, and soon many of the warriors 
found their way to the open common on the north side of 
the stockade. Then the women and children from the 
villages began to arrive, as though it were a general holi- 
day, and they had come to see the games. Yet all seemed 
restless and anxious, and it was very plain that they were 
not in a peaceful mood. 



The Siege of Detroit III 

At about ten o'clock Pontiac and sixty of his braves 
came down the river road, marching solemnly in Indian 
file to the eastern gate of the stockade. Their faces were 
besmeared with [)aint, and their heads adorned in the 
most fantastic style. All were wrapped in long colored 
blankets, which they drew closely about their shoulders. 
As they reached the gate it was opened to receive them. 
With stately tread the great chief led his followers into 
the inclosure and down St. Anne Street to the council 
house. But to his surprise and dismay he found himself 
marching between ranks of soldiers fully armed ; and at 
every turn of the street he saw groups of traders and 
sturdy backwoodsmen, with long knives in their belts and 
rifles in their hands. Men also stood at the guns on the 
bastions, waiting only the word of command. 

At the council house. Major Gladwyn and his officers 
were waiting to receive their savage visitors. 

'* Why do I see so many of my father's young 
men standing in the streets with their guns } " asked 
Pontiac. 

Gladwyn answered that it was customary to exercise 
the soldiers every morning. '' Come any day at this hour, 
and you shall see them with their guns." 

After some delay the chiefs seated themselves. As 
was the custom, they smoked together for some time in 
silence ; but any one could see that they were ill at 
ease. At length Pontiac arose and made a speech. He 
spoke of the number and prowess of his braves and of 
their deeds in war — and his eyes flashed and his voice 
rose in tones of exultation as he called to memory the 



112 



TJic Great Conspiracy 



savage victories in which they had borne a part. Then 
he spoke of the English and of their great power and of 
their recent triumphs — and with bowed head and suppH- 
cating voice he acknowledged their superior wisdom and 
pleaded for their friendship. His whole speech was a won- 
derful display of natural 
oratory. At one time he 
raised the belt of wampum 
as if to give the signal for 
his followers to begin the 
attack ; but at that mo- 
ment, at a slight signal 
from Major Gladwyn, a 
drum was beaten, there 
was a ratthng of arms at 
the door, and the rapid 
tramp of soldiers was 
heard in the street. The 
chief paused, he stam- 
mered, and then presented 
the belt in the usual man- 
ner, and sat down. 

Major Gladwyn then 
spoke. He told the chiefs 
'•At one time he raised the belt of wampum" that they should have the 

friendship of the English as long as they deserved it ; 
but he declared that in case of any perfidy on their 
part they should be most fearfully punished. He then 
dismissed the council. 

** I will come again in a few days," said Pontiac. " I 




TJie Siege of Detroit 1 1 3 

will then bring my women and children ; for I want them 
all to shake hands with their English father." 

The chiefs then marched away as they had come. The 
gate, which had been closed during the council, was 
opened to allow them to pass out. Pontiac walked sul- 
lenly to the river, got into his canoe, and paddled back to 
the Ottawa village on the opposite shore. 

On the following morning Pontiac again visited the fort. 
With him were three of his most trusted warriors, and 
in his hand he bore the pipe of peace. " My fathers," 
said he to the officers, "evil birds are flying in the air. 
They have whispered false tales in your ears. They have 
told you that we are not your friends. Believe them not. 
We love the English as brothers, and, to show that this 
is true, we have come to smoke the pipe of peace with 
you." 

After smoking with the officers, the wily chief bade 
them good-by and went out to confer with the Wyandots 
and the Pottawattomies, and with them lay new plans for 
the destruction of the fort. 

At about noon on the next day, the 9th of May, a great 

throng of savages appeared on the common behind the 

fort. *'Why are the gates closed against us.''" 

1763 
cried Pontiac. '' My young men wish to go m 

and enjoy the fragrance of the calumet with their English 

fathers." 

Gladwyn answered that the chief himself might come in 

if he wished, but that he would have none of his rabble 

inside of the stockade. Pontiac turned and strode back 

to his warriors. All pretense of friendship was at an end. 

CONQ. O.N.W. — 8 



114 TJie Great Conspiracy 

Brandishing his tomahawk, he called out for vengeance, 
and his voice was answered by the yells of hundreds of 
enraged savages. The bloody work began at once. One 
party rushed madly toward a little house on the farther 
side of the common, where an old Englishwoman lived 
with her two sons. These they massacred. Others 
pushed off in canoes to the Isle au Cochon and murdered 
a discharged sergeant who had a garden there. The 
rage of Pontiac was so great that no man dared speak 
to him, and yet he took no part in these wild deeds. 
That very day he ordered the village of the Ottawas to be 
removed to the western shore, so that his warriors in 
going back and forth would not be delayed by the river. 
The wigwams were hastily taken down, and before the 
next morning all were ferried over and again erected on 
the green banks of the little stream then known as 
Parent's Creek, but since called Bloody Run. Another 
wild war dance was danced. Ottawas, Wyandots, Potta- 
wattomies, and Chippewas, all rallied around the chief, 
and with fierce yells cried out for vengeance upon the 
hated English. 

A resolute attack was then made upon the fort. From 
behind houses, fences, and trees the savages kept up a 
brisk fire all day long ; but they were afraid of the small 
cannon in the blockhouses at the corners of the stockade, 
and did not dare to come near enough to do any damage. 

Then a regular siege began. Savage bands from the 
west and south came, one after another, to the aid of 
Pontiac ; and a host of bloodthirsty warriors surrounded 
the stockade day and night. The besieged were obliged 



TJic Siege of Detroit 1 1 5 

to be on the watch every moment. For weeks neither 
officers nor men took off their clothes to sleep ; their arms 
were always at hand ; and every person was ready for 
duty at a moment's call. 

The savages tried every means of annoyance. Floating 
fire rafts were sent down the river in order to destroy the 
two schooners that were anchored under the guns of the 
fort. Sharpshooters lurked in hiding places to pick off 
the sentinels who might carelessly show themselves above 
the defenses. Parties of warriors were sent out in every 
direction to cut off all help that might be sent to the 
beleaguered garrison. 

In June a vessel containing supplies and a reenforce- 
ment of fifty men was captured by the Indians. Soon 
afterward another vessel carrying provisions and ammuni- 
tion reached the mouth of the Detroit River. There the 
men landed to pass the night ; but while they slept a 
band of savages fell upon them and killed or captured 
almost the entire company. 

In July a reenforcement of two hundred and fifty sol- 
diers under Captain Dalzell reached the fort in safety. 
On the next day a sortie was made against the Indian 
encampment near Parent's Brook. It was an unfortunate 
affair. The English fell into an ambush and werfe driven 
back with great loss. Not long after this, however, the 
Indians began to show signs of weakening. Their food 
was becoming exhausted, and they were suffering from 
hunger. They had expected to destroy the fort at a single 
blow, but as months went by and they were still kept out- 
side of the stockade they lost their enthusiasm and their 



Ii6 TJic Great Conspiracy 

patience. As the time for the autumn hunt came on, they 
began to fall away ; and with the beginning of winter 
only the Ottawas remained faithful to their chief. 

Pontiac, although seeing that his cause was becoming 
hopeless, continued to annoy the garrison all winter and 
far into the next summer. At length Sir William 
Johnson, the British agent in western New York, 
succeeded in making a treaty of peace with the Senecas, 
then the most powerful of the Iroquois nations. This 
opened up the way along the southern shore of Lake Erie 
and made it possible to send relief to Detroit. A force of 
nearly three thousand soldiers was placed under the com- 
mand of Colonel Bradstreet, who was instructed to give 
the Indians of the Northwest a thorough chastisement and 
compel them to sue for peace. 

Most of the tribes, however, had already grown tired of 
the war, and were willing to make peace without compul- 
sion. Bradstreet and his little army arrived at Detroit in 
August, and were received with great joy by the belea- 
gured garrison who for fifteen months had lived in the midst 
of alarms, cut off from all communication with the world. 
Pontiac himself had retired secretly into the forest, and 
it was an easy matter to arrange peace with his former 
followers. A great council was held and the savages 
readily agreed to bury the hatchet and become good sub- 
jects of the king of England. Bradstreet then sent detach- 
ments to take possession of Mackinac and the Sault Sainte 
Marie. The terrible war which Pontiac had inaugurated 
was at an end. 



ENGLAND IN FULL POSSESSION 
I. BOUQUET. 

While the lake tribes were being subdued, Colonel 
Bouquet at Fort Pitt was preparing to invade the Ohio 
country and compel the Shawnees and other tribes of that 
region to sue for peace. Early in October, he set 
out from the forks of the Ohio with fifteen hundred 
soldiers. In front went a company of woodsmen, brawny 
wielders of the ax, who hewed their way through the forest 
and made a passable road for the host which followed. 
Behind was a long train of pack horses, and droves of cattle 
and sheep that were taken along for the subsistence of the 
troops. Their progress was slow, but on the tenth day 
they reached the Tuscarawas River at a point almost west 
of Fort Pitt and directly south of the place where the 
city of Cleveland now stands. They were now in the 
midst of the Indian country, and their coming struck 
terror into the hearts of the already conquered savages. 

As Colonel Bouquet continued his march down to the 
Muskingum, the chiefs of the various bands met him and 
begged him to appoint a time and place for a council. 
This request was readily granted, and, on the day agreed 
upon, white men and red met under the spreading branches 
of oaks and maples, to discuss the questions of war and 
peace. 

117 



ii8 



England iji Full Possession 



After all had smoked for a long time in silence, the 
spokesman of the Indians arose. His name was Turtle 
Heart, and he was a chief of the Delawares. 

"Brother," said he, addressing Colonel Bouquet, ** this 
war was neither your fault nor ours. It was the work of 
the nations that live to the westward, and of our wild 
young men who would have killed us if we had not con- 




" Under the spreading branches of oaks and maples " 

sented. We now put away all evil from our hearts, and 
we hope that your mind and ours will once more be united 
together. 

" Brother, it is the will of the Great Spirit that there 
should be peace between us. We, on our side, now take 
fast hold of the chain of friendship ; but, as we cannot 
hold it alone, we desire that you will take hold also, and 
we must look up to the Great Spirit that he may make us 
strong, and not permit this chain to fall from our hands. 



Bouquet 1 1 9 

" Brother, these words come from our hearts, and not 
from our Hps. You desire that we should deliver up your 
fiesh and blood now captive amon^^ us ; and to show you 
that we are sincere, we now return you as many of 
them as we have at present been able to bring. You 
shall receive the rest as soon as we have time to collect 
them." 

Eighteen white prisoners were at once delivered up to 
their friends, and each chief gave to Bouquet a bundle of 
small sticks which indicated the number of captives still 
held by his people, and whom he agreed to set free as soon 
as possible. Three days later, another council was held, 
and Colonel Bouquet made a long speech to the a'ssembled 
chiefs. It was a stern and unrelenting speech, and filled 
his red hearers with fear and humility. 

" I give you twelve days," said Colonel Bouquet, *' to 
deliver into my hands all the prisoners in your possession 
without exception ; and you are to furnish these prisoners 
with clothing and provisions, and with horses to carry 
them to Fort Pitt. When you have fully complied with 
these conditions, you shall then know on what terms you 
may obtain the peace you sue for." 

This speech had the desired effect of hastening matters ; 
and when, a few weeks later. Bouquet's army marched 
back to Fort Pitt, more than two hundred men, women, 
and children, who had been delivered from captivity, 
returned with it and were restored to their relatives and 
friends. Many of these returned unwillingly ; for the 
Indians had been kind to them, and they had grown to love 
the wild life of the woods. 



120 



England in Full Possession 



II. THE LAST HOPE DISPELLED 

Although defeated on every hand and deserted by his 
alhes, Pontiac had not yet lost hope, nor was he among 
those who sued for peace. He had retired in disappoint- 
ment and rage to the Wabash country, hoping to stir up 
the western tribes, and prevent them from making 
the English. Here, indeed, he had 
more reason to hope for success. 
For the French posts on the Wa- 
bash and the Mississippi had not 
yet been surrendered to the 
English. The French traders 
who still plied their vocation in 
these regions were fearful that 
the coming of the English would 
work their ruin ; and they used 
every means to persuade the 
Indians to revolt. 

" Your father, the king of 

France," said they, " intends 

surely to help you. Before many 

moons have passed you will see 

his white-coated warriors whom 

" His fiery eloquence stirred the j^^ j^^g ^^^>^ ^^ figj^t for y^^. 
hearts of all that heard him " _ ,. , . 

Do not trust the English ; do 

not permit them to come near you. They want only to 

drive you from their homes, and to take your lands for 

their own." 

Pontiac found numbers of Indians who were wiUing to 




The Last Post given up 121 

promise him aid. He passed down the Wabash, stopping; 
at the French posts of Ouiatenon and Vincennes, and visit- 
ing the villages of the Kickapoos, the Miamis, and the 
Piankeshaws. His fiery eloquence stirred the hearts of 
-all that heard him ; but no organized plan was made for 
resisting the English, who were sure to come. With four 
hundred warriors at his heels, he hastened across the 
prairies to Fort Chartres on the Mississippi, above whose 
bastions the white flag of France was still floating. The 
great chief had known the commandant, St. Ange, in hap- 
pier days for them both, and he hoped now to gain his 
support. 

** Father," said he, *' I love the French, and I have come 
hither with my warriors to avenge their wrongs. I re- 
member the battles which we fought together against the 
English dogs, and now I come to ask you to give me arms 
and ammunition and men, that I may carry on the war." 

St. Ange was obliged to refuse this request ; but he 
tried to soothe the wounded feelings of the chief by giv- 
ing him presents and praising his courage. Pontiac, in 
bitterness of heart, turned away, angrily crying out against 
such hollow friendship. 

III. THE LAST POST GIVEN UP 

Early in the summer of the following year. Sir William 
Johnson determined to send a trustworthy messenger to 
the Wabash country to prepare the French and 
Indians for the coming of the EngHsh forces. 
In looking about for a suitable person to undertake this 
perilous mission, whom could he better choose than our 



122 England in Full Possession 

old acquaintance, George Croghan, who had been the 
companion of Gist in his famous visit to the Miamis fif- 
teen years before ? Croghan, with two boats and some 
white companions, started from Fort Pitt about the middle 
of May. Floating down the Ohio, he took careful note 
of its windings and of the nature of the country which it 
watered. The river flowed majestically onward through 
one vast stretch of wilderness land. Forests of oak and 
walnut and maple trees shut out the view on either side. 
Buffaloes and wild game of every kind were abundant, 
and the whole country seemed to be a hunter's paradise. 

The Shawnees in the valley of the Scioto hastened to 
make their peace with Croghan. But as he passed far- 
ther down the Ohio he found the Indians less ready to 
submit to the English. In June, when near the mouth 
of the Wabash, he was taken prisoner by some strolling 
Kickapoos and Mascoutins, who probably thought that 
they were thus serving the cause of the French. Croghan, 
however, was so well acquainted with Indian character 
that he quickly won the esteem of his captors. They 
treated him with unwonted kindness, and carried him to 
Vincennes, where he found the French commandant very 
courteous, and quite ready to surrender the post whenever 
the Enghsh should demand it. There were at that time 
about eighty French families at Vincennes, living in con- 
tented ease upon the products of the forest and their little 
garden plots. On the outskirts of the village were clusters 
of Indian huts where certain of the Twightwees and other 
tribes dwelt under the protection of the French fort. 

Croghan was allowed to remain only a day or two at 



The Last Post given up 123 

Vincennes, and was then sent up the river to Ouiatenon. 
There he was set at liberty, and a council with the 
Indians was called. The French garrison had already 
abandoned the fort ; but a dozen French families were liv- 
ing inside of the little stockade, and two or three traders 
were there for the purpose of buying furs. For several 
days Croghan was kept busy, smoking the peace pipe and 
making treaties with the various tribes that dwelt in that 
region. All seemed ready to receive their new rulers. 
They promised to give up any prisoners that were among 
them, and to hoist the English flag over their villages. 

Having finished his business with these tribes, Croghan 
started across the country to Fort Chartres ; but hardly 
had he lost sight of the Wabash when he was met by a 
band of warriors under the leadership of a stern, eagle- 
eyed chief whom he at once recognized as the great 
Pontiac. The meeting was a friendly one. Pontiac had 
lost all hope of receiving aid from the French, and he was 
now on his way to make peace with the English. " He 
was a shrewd, sensible Indian," said Croghan, afterward. 

All now returned to Ouiatenon, and a solemn council 
was held with the Ottawa chief and his friends. Pontiac 
offered the belt of peace and declared his friendship for 
the English. He had been deceived by the French, he 
said ; he would no longer stand in the way. 

The speech in which Croghan replied °to the great chief 
was so like an Indian's that every one of his dusky hearers 
was charmed with its eloquence, and all pledged their 
undying friendship to the English. 

Croghan 's mission to prepare the western tribes for the 



124 England in Full Possessio7t 

coming of the English was now ended, and he thought it 
unnecessary to go forward to Fort Chartres. He therefore 
hastened to Detroit, whither he was followed by Pontiac. 
Another council of peace was held with the lake tribes. 

*' Father," said Pontiac, '' we have all smoked out of this 
pipe of peace. It is your children's pipe, and as the war 
is all over, and the Great Spirit and Giver of Light, who 
has made the earth and everything therein, has brought 
us all together this day for our mutual good, I declare to 
all nations that I have settled my peace with you ..." 

Before the end of September, Croghan was at Oswego, 
New York, where he reported to Sir William Johnson all 
that he had seen and done. In the meanwhile Captain 
Thomas Stirling had been chosen as the best man to take 
possession of the Western country. With his famous 
Black Watch regiment, composed of a hundred and 
twenty Highlanders, he at once started down the Ohio. 
The voyage was a quick and prosperous one, and the 
regiment arrived at Fort Chartres without any mishap. 
On the loth of October the white flag of France, 
which had floated for half a century over that 
famous fortress, was hauled down, and the cross of St. 
George was hoisted in its stead. 

Thus, at last, the Northwest was won by England. But 
England, as Mr. Bancroft says, had not achieved this 
conquest for herself. She became "not so much the 
possessor of the valley of the West as the trustee, com- 
missioned to transfer it from the France of the Middle 
Ages to the free people who were making for humanity 
a new life in America. " 



A YANKEE TRAVELER 
I. AMBITIOUS PLANS 

AT the close of the war which gave the Northwest to 
the EngHsh there was living in Connecticut a 
dreamer of dreams whose name was Jonathan Carver. 
When a young man he had enhsted in the British army, 
and by his energy and courage he had finally 
risen to the rank of captain. The great North- 
west with its hidden mysteries and its future possibilities 
had interested him from his childhood. He had read of 
Jean Nicolet, of La Salle, of Hennepin, and of Veren- 
drye ; and he was fired with a desire to complete the 
discoveries which they had begun. He would trace the 
Mississippi to its source ; he would lay bare the mystery 
of the great westward flowing river; he would discover 
the lon^-sought water route to the Pacific. 

There were other less visionary plans which he hoped to 
carry out. He would make correct maps and charts of the 
country so lately added to the possessions of Great Britain, 
and he would gain a knowledge of its soil, its products, and 
its inhabitants. Then he would ascertain the breadth of 
the North American continent at its widest part, and 
would learn what was the nature of its surface and what 
the extent of its rivers and mountains. In case he should 
succeed in all these schemes, he proposed to establish a 

125 



126 A Yankee Traveler 

trading post on the Pacific coast near the so-called straits 

of Annian, which, having been discovered by Sir Francis 

Drake, belonged of course to the king of England. 

In June, 1766, Captain Carver started from Boston on 

his enterprise of discovery. Three months later he reached 

Mackinac, the most western of the Ens^lish posts 
1766 

on the lakes. There he obtained a supply of 

goods for use in dealing with the Indians, and then 

pushed onward to Green Bay. 

At the head of the bay, and not far from the old Jesuit 
mission of St. Francis Xavier, there was a stockade which 
had been built by the French and called Fort la Baie. 
The history of this fort was well known to Carver. A 
small EngHsh force under Lieutenant Gorell had taken 
possession of it in 1761, and had rechristened it Fort 
Edward Augustus. The walls were in a ruinous condi- 
tion, and the place was but poorly fitted to withstand an 
attack from any foe. But Lieutenant Gorell was as wise 
as he was brave. He treated the Indians with great fair- 
ness, and at the same time made them understand that he 
would punish any false deaHng on their part. In this way 
he won their respect and friendship. Ten days after the 
bloody massacre at Mackinac, an Indian messenger 
brought the news to Green Bay, together with a letter 
of warning and advice from Captain Etherington, who 
was then a prisoner of the Ottawas. 

Obedient to his captain's orders, Lieutenant Gorell 
abandoned Fort Edward Augustus and embarked all his 
men in canoes, saying that he was going to Mackinac to 
restore order. Ninety Indian warriors went with him. 



Afi Early Viciv of the Nort Invest 127 

At the village of L'Arbre Croche, near Mackinac, he 
found Captain Etherington and eleven other prisoners — 
all who remained from the massacre — in the hands of the 
Ottawas. He called a council of the chiefs, and by wise 
and courageous action persuaded them to give the Kng- 
lishmen their freedom. Then all embarked again, and 
escorted by a fleet of Indian canoes, started toward 
the white settlements in the east. A month later they 
reached Montreal, having come by the old French route 
down the Ottawa River. 



II. AN EARLY VIEW OF THE NORTHWEST 

When Jonathan Carver reached Fort Edward Augustus 
it was in the same ruinous condition in which Lieutenant 
Gorell had left it. A few French families were living 
within the stockade, and on the other side of the river 
were some small French houses with little gardens around 
them. Carver thought that it was a very pleasant though 
lonely place, and the people seemed to be comfortable and 
contented. 

Going on up the river, he came to Lake Winnebago, and 
visited the chief town of the Winnebagoes which was then 
on Doty's Island. Here were about fifty houses, all 
strongly built and surrounded by palisades. The ruler of 
the tribe was a woman, who received Carver kindly and 
entertained him as hospitably as she could. Farther up 
the lake was another but smaller town of the same tribe. 

Carver, following the course of Marquette and Joliet, 
soon came to the portage between the Fox River and the 



128 A Yankee Travelei' 

Wisconsin. Here his canoe was carried for a mile and 
a half — part of the way over a wet meadow and part of 
the way through a straggling forest of oak and pine. 

From the portage he descended the Wisconsin to the 
great village of the Sacs at the place now called Prairie du 
Sac. ■ This village, if we are to believe his very doubtful 
story, was a wonderful place. He tells us that the houses 
were built of hewn planks with broad porches in front, 
and so disposed as to form long and beautiful streets. A 
great trade in provisions was carried on there, and lead 
was so plentiful that it could be picked up in the streets. 

On the left bank of the Mississippi River, just above the 
mouth of the Wisconsin, was Prairie du Chien, the princi- 
pal village of the Fox Indians, which Carver describes as 
being another very busy place. Throughout this whole 
region not a single white man was to be found ; but while 
passing through Lake Pepin, a few days later, the traveler 
was shown the ruins of the fort where Legardeur de St. 
Pierre had lived and traded with the Sioux more than 
twenty years before. 

Our traveler explored the country along both banks of 
the Mississippi as far as to the St. Francis River in 
Minnesota. One day as he was standing near the place 
now occupied by the twin cities, St. Paul and Minneapolis, 
he pictured to himself the future of the region about the 
head waters of the Mississippi. Here, thought he, was a 
place designed by nature for the seat of a future great 
empire. Eastward, the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence 
would afford an easy communication with the Atlantic 
seaboard. Southward, the Great River would give ready 



Carver s Grant 



129 



access to the Gulf. Westward, the-re would doubtless 
soon be discovered some practical route to the Pacific 
coast. Northward, there were water ways leading to Hud- 
son Bay and the unexplored regions bordered by the Arc- 
tic seas. And then, as if gifted with the spirit of proph- 
ecy, Carver made this note in his journal: *'As the seat 
of empire from time immemorial has been gradually pro- 
gressive toward the west, there is no doubt that, at some 
future period, mighty kingdoms will emerge from these 
wildernesses, and stately palaces and solemn temples, with 
gilded spires reaching the skies, will supplant the Indian 
huts, whose only decorations are the barbarous trophies 
of their vanquished enemies." 

III. CARVER'S GRANT 



1766-67 



For one whole winter. Carver lived among the Sioux 
Indians, and according 
to his own account he 
made himself 
so agreeable 
to these savages of the 
distant West that they 
adopted him into their 
tribe and made him one 
of their chiefs. While 
sitting by the camp fires 
of his dusky friends, or 
resting in their wigwams, 
he busied himself taking notes of his discoveries and making 

CONQ. O.N.W. — 9 




130 A Yankee Traveler 

maps of the Northwest country. His maps were drawn 
with much care and were based both upon his own observa- 
tions and upon the reports brought to him by the Indians. 

He beheved that the great westward flowing river which 
Verendrye and St. Pierre had sought for in vain would 
yet be discovered ; and in one of his maps he placed its 
source in a small lake a little way west of the source of 
the Mississippi. This river he called the '' Origan," and 
he traced its probable course as it flowed through un- 
bounded plains to the far distant Pacific. As for the 
Rocky Mountains, mentioned by Legardeur de St. Pierre, 
he argued that they had no existence except as " a single 
peak of bright stones " rising out of the plains north of 
the great river. 

For some reason which he never explained, Carver did 
not go much farther west. Late in the summer he re- 
turned to the lakes, and in the following year he reached 
Boston. He had traveled, according to his own estimate, 
about seven thousand miles. His theories and the story 
of his explorations awakened much interest ; and there 
were men of wealth who were wiUing to aid him in finding 

a way from the Mississippi to the Pacific. But 
1768 

trouble was already brewing between the colonies 

and the mother country, and, before any plans could be 

matured, the breaking out of the Revolutionary War put 

an end to all further thoughts of new discoveries in the 

distant West. 

After the death of Carver his descendants claimed that 

the Sioux Indians had granted to him a tract of land more 

than a hundred miles square in the western part of what 



Carvers Grant 13 1 

is now the state of Wisconsin. A deed in Carver's hand- 
writini;-, signed by two Indian chiefs, was presented in 
evidence of this grant. In it the boundary Hne of this 
tract was described as beginning at the Falls of St. An- 
thony and running thence "on the east banks of the Mis- 
sissippi, nearly southeast, as far as the south end of Lake 
Pepin, and from thence eastward five days' travel, account- 
ing twenty English miles per day, and from thence north 
six days' travel, and from thence again to the Falls of St. 
Anthony on a direct straight Hne." Many persistent 
efforts were made to induce Congress to confirm and 
legalize this grant, but all finally failed. For nearly fifty 
years the territory, known as '* Carver's Tract," was dis- 
tinctly marked and named on all maps of the Northwest. 



A NOBLE RED MAN 

I. A DASTARDLY DEED 

WHILE Pontiac and his warriors were carrying terror 
and destruction to many English posts in the 
Northwest, there was one Iroquois Indian of great influ- 
ence who remained the firm friend of the whites. This 
was Tah-gah-jute, the son of a chief of the Cayugas. He 
had been brought up near a Moravian settlement in central 
Pennsylvania, and had been given an EngHsh name, John 
Logan, in honor of the secretary of William Penn, who 
was revered as a steadfast friend of the Indians. It is 
by this name that he is always known in history. 

Logan, until misfortunes overwhelmed him, was one of 
Nature's noblemen. Among white people and red he was 
famed, not only for his fine appearance and his engaging 
manners, but also for the uprightness of his character. 
He was more than six feet tall, straight as an arrow, hand- 
some in form and feature, an Apollo of the wildwood. 
He was courteous to all men, and gentle particularly to 
children. His word, once given, was never broken ; he 
was loyal to his friends ; he seemed to be the very soul of 
honor. The Indians of all tribes respected him for his 
courage and for his skill as a hunter. The rude back- 
woodsmen and the white vagabonds of the frontier es- 
teemed him as a man superior to themselves, declaring 

132 



A Dastardly Deed 133 

that he was "the best specimen of humanity they had ever 
met with." 

During the progress of Pontiac's war, Logan kept him- 
self aloof from the rest of his people. He spent his time 
in hunting and trapping among the mountains and in 
dressing skins to sell to the Pennsylvanian traders. When 
his savage friends tried to persuade him to dig up the 
hatchet and join them on the warpath, he plainly told 
them that he preferred to stay at home with his wife and 
children. 

A short time after the close of the war he removed with 
his family to the banks of the Ohio not far from where 
the town of Steubenville now stands. The Mingoes, who 
were relatives of the Iroquois, and whose homes were in 
that region, had long* admired Logan for his woodcraft 
and his wisdom, and they now chose him to be their chief. 
He found that many white men had collected at different 
places in the country south of the Ohio. Some of these 
were criminals who had fled to the wilderness to escape 
punishment for their wicked deeds ; some w^ere hunters 
who liked nothing so well as the wild, rough life of the 
frontier ; some were traders, with a plentiful supply of 
fire water for the Indians and no sense of honor in their 
hearts ; a few were honest pioneers anxious to make new 
homes in the wilderness. 

These men were the vanguard of the great western 
movement which was just then beginning, and which in 
time was to overrun and subdue the better part of the con- 
tinent. They would have crossed the Ohio and opened 
settlements in the Northwest had they dared ; but the 



134 A iV^/^/r Red Man 

English Parliament had made that river the boundary line 
between Virginia and the Indian country, and no white 
man was permitted to settle or remain on its northern side. 
Often, however, in spite of all this, some lawless border 
ruffian would push his way into the forbidden land and 
perhaps commit some outrage upon the savage inhabitants. 
Then the Indians would retaliate by crossing to the south 
side of the river and doing a like injury to the settlers 
there. 

Matters were in this state when Chief Logan set up his 
lodge on the banks of Yellow Creek on the north side of 
the Ohio. There was much ill feehng between 
the Indians and the backwoodsmen, and as time 
went on this feeling grew worse and worse. At last the 
crisis came. A daring pioneer, named Walter Kelly, had 
made his home in the woods of the Kenawha Valley, 
eighty miles from the nearest stockade. One night a 
prowling band of Shawnees came upon the lonely cabin, 
burned it to the ground, and murdered the pioneer and 
his defenseless family. Soon after this it was reported 
that some other Indians had crossed the Ohio and stolen 
several horses from a party of land-grabbers who were 
encamped near the Kenawha. 

The ruffians and backwoodsmen cried loudly for ven- 
geance. They were anxious for an Indian war, and these 
two outrages seemed to give them an excuse for beginning 
it. Lord Dunmore, the royal governor of Virginia, had 
reasons of his own for wishing to punish the Indians, and 
he at once sent word to the backwoodsmen to be in readi- 
ness to repel any attack that the Indians might make upon 



A Dastaiiily Deed 135 

them. This was ri«;htly understood as meaning that they 
might attack the Indians if they chose. 

The land-grabbers sought out Michael Cresap, the son 
of a famous frontiersman of the same name, and made 
him their captain. With them also was a daring young 
Virginian, George Rogers Clark, who had come out to 
survey a grant of land near the mouth of the Kenawha. 
Other men joined them, hunters, backwoodsmen, and law- 
less vagabonds, and all marched down to the spot where 
the city of Wheeling now stands. There were already a 
dozen log houses and a stockade there ; and Colonel Zane, 
the founder of the settlement, gave the company a gener- 
ous welcome. 

A few days afterward Captain Cresap, with a few of 
his men, waylaid a small company of friendly Indians in 
canoes, killed and scalped them, and returned to Wheeling, 
boasting of what they had done. Colonel Zane, and some 
of the better men among the pioneers, loudly condemned 
this deed, declaring that such wanton murder would call 
for revenge and provoke a bloody Indian war. 

"That is just what we want!" cried the ruffians. 
" Nothing can help this colony so much as a good Indian 
war." 

That same evening Cresap learned that a party of 
Shawnees was encamped at the mouth of Captina Creek, 
a few miles below Wheeling. The next morning he led 
his company out, attacked the unsuspecting savages, and 
shot three of them, the others escaping into the woods. 

Having begun the work of slaughter, these white men 
thirsted for more and more blood. The nearest settle- 



136 A Noble Red Man 

ment of Indians was that of the Mingoes under Logan, 

several miles up the river. Under the rule of their wise 

and gentle-hearted chief they had always been 
1774 •' ■' 

known as the friends of the white people ; but 

they were Indians, and to Cresap and his followers all 

Indians were alike. Some of the men proposed that, since 

the war had now begun, they should march upon Logan's 

camp on Yellow Creek and destroy it. They thereupon 

crossed the river and started upon their savage errand. 

But there were some in the company who had not lost 
all sense of humanity. They began to think of the kind 
of errand upon which they were bent. They were march- 
ing, not against enemies, but against friends. They were 
planning to murder defenseless women and children ; for 
they knew that Logan's warriors were absent hunting. 
They had not gone many miles, therefore, before they 
began to feel ashamed of themselves. A halt was called, 
and all the better men among them declared that they 
would go no farther. Cresap, perhaps not unwillingly, 
was obliged to change his plans, and all returned to 
Wheeling. 

On the left-hand bank of the Ohio, opposite the mouth 
of Yellow Creek, was a tract of fertile land called " Baker's 
Bottom " from the name of a backwoods trader who had 
built a cabin there. To this place came thirty-two of the 
most lawless men of the border, determined upon the 
destruction of Logan's camp. They were led by Daniel 
Greathouse, a ruffian of the lowest type who had persuaded 
them that the Indians were about to make a raid across 
the river at that pomt. 



A Dastardly Deed 



m 



Baker's trade was the selling of whisky to the Indians; 
and the Mingoes, both men and women, were in the habit 
of crossing the river to buy liquor from him. Being a man 
without conscience or character, he was easily persuaded 
by Greathouse to help carry out a plot, one of the most 
disgraceful in the history of the Northwest. 




" They were fired upon by the white ruffians" 

On the last day of April a small party of Indian women 
and children paddled across the river and were lured to 
Baker's cabin. In the party were several of Logan's 
own family, and others who were dear to him. While 
Greathouse and his men lay hidden in the woods. Baker 
plied his visitors with liquor. Three of the men became 
hopelessly drunk, and the other warriors were persuaded 



138 A Noble Red Man 

to empty their guns by firing at a mark. Then Great- 
house and four or five others suddenly rushed out and 
murdered them all except a little babe, the child of 
Logan's sister. Some Indians on the other side of the 
river, hearing the guns, jumped into their canoes and pad- 
dled across to the help of their friends, but before they 
could reach the shore they were fired upon by the white 
ruffians who were waiting for them, and nearly all were 
killed. 

This cold-blooded outrage set the whole Indian country 
ablaze. Runners were sent to convey the news to all the 
tribes, and soon a strong war party under Logan had 
crossed the river, and was carrying death and destruction to 
all the white settlements along the border. The war which 
Lord Dunmore and Captain Cresap had thought would 
result in so much benefit to Virginia was actually begun. 

The colony of Pennsylvania had all along held that 
white settlers should not encroach upon the country of the 
Indians. The Pennsylvanians wished to trade with the 
savages, not to dispossess them of their lands, and for that 
reason were anxious to keep their friendship. They there- 
fore sent messages to the different tribes, deploring the 
outrages that had been committed, and condemning the 
lawless men who were responsible for them. 

In the great struggle which followed, the Indians re- 
tained their friendship toward Pennsylvania, and sought 
revenge only upon Virginia. But since all the Mononga- 
hela Valley was claimed by Virginia, many of the first 
incursions of the savages were into territory which now 
forms a part of Pennsylvania. 



Lord Diiuvwrc s War 1 39 

II. LORD DIJNMORE^S WAR 

Lord Dun more lost no time in preparing to crush the 
Indians of the Northwest. At the head of an army of 
fifteen hundred Virginians he marched to Fort 
Pitt. From that place, with a fleet of a hundred 
canoes, he descended the Ohio to the mouth of the Hock- 
hocking, where he built a stockade which he called Fort 
Gore. Then he marched across the country westward to 
the Scioto, and established a fortified camp, not far from 
Old Chillicothe, the principal town of the Shawnees. 
From this camp various parties were sent out against the 
different Indian settlements in the valley of the Scioto, 
villages were burned, cornfields were destroyed, and the 
savage bands were scattered and driven into the thick 
forest. 

In the meanwhile, an army of frontiersmen, under Colo- 
nel Lewis, had marched down the Kenawha, and had 
camped at Point Pleasant, on the south side of the Ohio. 
There, while waiting for orders from Lord Dunmore, they 
were suddenly attacked by a large Indian war party under 
a Shawnee chief, known as Cornstalk. The battle that 
followed was one of the most desperate that has ever been 
fought between white men and red. There were about a 
thousand men on each side, and from early dawn until 
nearly sunset the conflict raged with varying fortune. 
Finally, by a well-conducted flank movement, the Virgin- 
ians made a fierce and resistless charge upon the Indians. 
The latter were panic-stricken ; they fled in great disorder 
across the Ohio, and hastened with what si)eed they could 



140 A Noble Red Man 

toward their villages on the Scioto. There, however, 
they found Lord Dunmore, ravaging their homes and car- 
rying destruction before him. Disheartened and wholly 
subdued. Cornstalk, with his leading warriors, humbly 
appeared before Dunmore and begged for peace. 

Cornstalk had gone into the war unwillingly. He had 
urged his people, at the very beginning, to make peace 
with the Virginians ; but his hot-headed young men would 
not listen to his advice. At last, in sheer desperation, he 
cried out, ** Since you will fight, you sJiall figJit !'' and 
plunged with all his savage energy into the conflict. The 
end was as he had foreseen. His conquered people were 
obliged to accept any terms that the haughty English lord 
would give. 

A council was held, and a treaty was made. The In- 
dians solemnly promised that no white man on the Ohio 
should be molested, and that none of their own people 
should be permitted to cross to the southern side of that 
river. They also agreed to give up all their prisoners and 
return the horses that had been stolen from the whites. 
On the Qther hand, Lord Dunmore promised that no white 
man should be permitted to land on the north bank of the 
Ohio, or to enter the Indian country — a promise which, 
like all others made to the Indians, was never intended to 
be kept. 

III. CHIEF LOGAN^S SPEECH 

During all this unhappy war, Logan, the Mingo chief, 
had been one of the most active among the Indian lead- 
ers. The thought of the wrongs which he had suffered 



Chief Logaii s Speech 141 

urged him to seek revenge. At the head of his band of 
young men, he made raid after raid into the settlements 
across the Ohio ; but even while he was killing and burning 
and carrying terror before him, his strange tenderness of 
heart would often assert itself, and the kindliness of his 
nature would stay his hand. Frequently, at the moment 
of victory, he would spare those whom he had set out to 
destroy ; and more than one captive was saved from tor- 
ture and death by his timely interposition. 

At last, when defeat came, Logan was not among those 
who sued for peace. When urged to attend the council 
with Lord Dunmore, he sullenly refused, saying that he 
was not a talker but a fighter. John Gibson, a frontiers- 
man well acquainted with the Indians, was sent to speak 
with him. He led Gibson aside into the edge of a grove, 
and there delivered a speech which the frontiersman wrote 
down and carried to Lord Dunmore. This speech is the 
most famous specimen of Indian oratory that has come 
down to us, and I quote it here in the condensed form in 
which it was written out and published by Thomas Jeffer- 
son, ten years after its delivery. It must be remembered 
that while the thoughts are Logan's the manner of express- 
ing them is Jefferson's. 

*' I appeal to any white man to say if ever he entered 
Logan's cabin hungry, and he gave him not meat ; if ever 
he came cold and naked and he clothed him not. During 
the course of the last long and bloody war, Logan remained 
idle in his cabin, an advocate of peace. Such was my love 
for the whites that my countrymen pointed as they passed 
and said, ' Logan is the friend of the white man.' I had 



142 A Noble Red Man 

even thought to have lived with you but for the injuries of 
one man. Colonel Cresap, the last spring, in cold blood 
and unprovoked, murdered all the relations of Logan, not 
even sparing my women and children. There runs not 
a drop of my blood in the veins of any living creature. 
This called on me for revenge. I have sought it. I have 
killed many. I have fully glutted my vengeance. For my 
country I rejoice at the beams of peace ; but do not harbor 
a thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt 
fear. He will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who 
is there to mourn for Logan } Not one." 

One evening, around a camp fire on the Scioto, were 
gathered a number of backwoodsmen and borderers who 
had followed Lord Dunmore in his conquest of the Ohio 
Valley. Among them were George Rogers Clark, Michael 
Cresap, Simon Kenton, and some others whose names are 
famous in the annals of the Northwest. One of them had 
obtained a copy of Logan's speech, and read it aloud by 
the light of the flames. They listened and could but ad- 
mire its pathetic eloquence and the proud disdain with 
which Logan disclaimed any desire for peace on his own 
account. 

'* And you, Cresap," cried George Rogers Clark, turning 
sharply around, ** what a great man you are ! Why, you 
not only get credit for all your own deeds, but the Indians 
put everything else on your shoulders." 

Cresap sprang up in anger. ** If Dan Greathouse were 
here," he exclaimed, *' I would tomahawk him for that das- 
tardly murder of Logan's kin ! " 



Lord Duiiinorc s War 



143 



After the war Loi^an felt himself alone in the world. 
He wandered from place to place, having no home and 
caring little for the friendship either of red men or of 
white. Conflicting stories are told of the manner of his 
death, but there is little doubt that he was treacherously 
slain by one of his own people to whom he had given 
some slight offense. 




" Cresap sprang up in anger 



Lord Dunmore's war accomplished much more than 
Dunmore himself could have dreamed. It so completely 
cowed the Indian tribes of the Northwest that when the 
Revolution began, a year later, they hesitated to make an 
alliance with Great Britain for the purpose of attacking 
the frontiers of Virginia ; it opened the way for the settle- 
ment of the rich Kentucky region south of the Ohio ; it 
strengthened the claim which Virginia was making for the 



144 ^ Noble Red Man 

possession of the greater part of the Northwest; and, 
finally, it made it possible for the Northwest to be won by 
the colonial forces, and, therefore, in the end, to become 
a part of the United States instead of remaining a part of 
Canada. 



HOW THE LAND WAS WON FOR FREEDOM 

FOR SAVAGERY, OR FOR CIVILIZATION? 
THE POLICY OF THE ENGLISH KING 

AT the time that Viiicennes and the posts in the Illinois 
Country were deliv^ered up to the I^nglish the French 
population of the Northwest did not greatly exceed five 
thousand. In this number were included strolling traders, 
voyageurs, coureurs de bois, and about five hundred negro 
slaves. 

The French disliked the thought of becoming subjects 
of the king of England. In Canada they could not help 
themselves, and therefore had to make the best of it ; but 
many of those who lived in the Illinois Country abandoned 
their homes and crossed the Mississippi where they sup- 
posed the French king still held possession. They did not 
know that all the region beyond the river had been secretly 
ceded to Spain. Some of them gathered about the new 
post of St. Louis ; others settled at the somewhat older 
village of St. Genevieve, nearly opposite Kaskaskia ; 
and still others made their way southward to New 
Orleans. 

No settlers from the colonies east of the Alleghanies 
came into the Northwest to make up for the loss of these 

CON(J. O.N.W. — lO 145 



146 For Savagery, or for Civilization f 

emigrants. The country remained a savage wilderness 
with no white inhabitants save the few French people who 
remained in their little settlements, and the soldiers and 
traders who were stationed at the English posts. It was 
the intention of the British government to resign the 
entire region north of the Ohio to the possession of the 
Indian tribes — ^to make of it a true Indian country under 
the protection of the English crown. 

Not only were the colonists in Virginia, Pennsylvania, 
and New York forbidden to make settlements in the North- 
west, but all entrance into that region was prohibited, and 
it was proposed to destroy the settlements which already 
existed there. 

Three years before the beginning of our Revolutionary 

War, orders came from England to dislodge the French 

in the Wabash Country ; and General Gae^e, the 
1772 . . . ^ ^ 

British military commander in the Northwest, 

made proclamation warning all white settlers, English as 
well as French, to remove from the country. But it was 
shown that the people at Vincennes had clear titles to their 
lands, — some of them made nearly seventy years before ; 
and when the matter was appealed to those higher in 
authority, the order of banishment, although not with- 
drawn, was allowed to rest unheeded and unenforced. 

About a year before the battle of Lexington, a law was 
enacted by the British Parliament declaring the whole of 
the Northwest to be a part of Canada, restoring the laws 
that had been in force during the French rule, and confirm- 
ing the Catholic priesthood in all their former rights, privi- 
leges, and property. It was a strange enactment, and was 



The Policy of tJic English King 147 

designed to benefit neither the French inhabitants nor 
the CathoHc clergy, but to prevent the American colo- 
nists, who were now making themselves heard, from 
getting possession of the richest portion of the continent. 
The colonists were already on the verge of revolution ; 
and the passage of this law increased the bitterness 
with which they were beginning to regard the mother 
country. 

Virginia claimed the greater part of the Northwest as 
her own. It was hers by the terms of the charter which 
she had received from King James in 1609. New York 
also claimed a large portion of the same territory, having 
acquired it through various treaties with the Iroquois Indi- 
ans. Pennsylvania also had claims based on a treaty 
made with the Iroquois at Lancaster. All the colonies 
had aided in rescuing this region from the French, and 
they now saw it about to be severed from them and formed 
into a vast inland province from which white men must be 
excluded. Every true American cried out against this act 
of Parliament. It was one of the many deeds of tyranny 
with which the people charged the English king, and 
was therefore one of the causes of the American Revo- 
lution. 

In the meanwhile, the Indians of the Northwest were 
becoming reconciled to the English government, and at the 
same time bitterly hostile to the colonists. Why was this ? 
The English king had assured them that their hunting 
grounds should not be invaded ; his soldiers were ready to 
protect them from intrusion ; his traders gave them good 
goods in exchange for their peltries, and supplied them 



148 For Savagery, or for Civilization ? 

with an abundance of cheap rum. The colonists, on the 
other hand, were eager to open up settlements in the wil- 
derness ; they wished to destroy the Indians' hunting 
grounds in order to make homes for themselves ; and they 
cared nothing for trade with the savages nor did they 
wish their friendship on any terms. 

When, therefore, the war of the Revolution broke out, 
the Indians were soon won over to the side of the English 
king. General Hamilton, the lieutenant-governor of Can- 
ada with headquarters at Detroit, had but to send out his 
war belt, and thousands of warriors were ready to seize the 
tomahawk and scalping knife and join in bloody forays 
upon the American frontiers. 

The commanders of the British posts on the Wabash 

and the upper Mississippi encouraged the savages to send 

out bands to lay waste the borders of Viro:inia and 
1777 ' 

destroy the newly formed settlements south of 

the Ohio. By direction of the king's ministers, the Indians 

were supplied with arms and ammunition for carrying 

on their murderous warfare ; and by order of General 

Hamilton prizes were offered for the scalps of Americans, 

whether of men, women, or children. In the spring of 

a single year, no fewer than fifteen bands of bloodthirsty 

savages crossed the Ohio, and urged on by promises from 

the king's officers, committed many fiendish outrages. 

How were the American people, while struggling for 

their independence, to put a stop to such barbarities } 

How could the scattered settlers in the frontier regions of 

Kentucky and Virginia be protected from the raids of 

these savage bands.'' How could the great Northwest, rich 



TJic Policy of tJic EuglisJi King 149 

in undeveloped resources, be won for American homes and 
American control? The solution of these questions was 
made possible by the wisdom and daring of a young Vir- 
ginian whose acquaintance we have already made — 
George Rogers Clark. 



THE HANNIBAL OF THE NORTHWEST 
I. THE COUNTY OF KENTUCKY 

George Rogers Clark was but twenty-two years old when 
he accompanied Lord Dunmore's expedition into the Ohio 
wilderness. He was born of good parentage in Albermarle 
county, Virginia, and had the true instincts of a bold fron- 
tiersman and leader of men. His business was that of sur- 
veyor, and upon his first visit to the border, a short time 
before Cresap's murderous exploits, he made himself known 
among the frontiersmen by his skill in woodcraft, no less 
than by his fearlessness and untiring energy. 

Early in the spring, after the close of Dunmore's war, 
Clark gave up his claim on the Kenawha and went down 

to Kentucky where Daniel Boone and other bold 

1775 

pioneers were just beginning to found a new com- 
monwealth in the wilderness. After spending some weeks 
in that land of promise, he returned to his home in Vir- 
ginia, where he learned that the war between the colonies 
and the mother country had actually begun. 

The next summer he was again in Kentucky, having 

walked there alone through the unbroken wilderness. He 

spent much of his time in the woods, but visited 
1776 

all the little settlements and became acquainted 

with the hardy pioneers, making himself useful to them 

in many ways, and being chosen by them to command 

150 



The Comity of Kentucky 



151 



the backwoods militia. The settlements were in constant 
danger of attacks by the Indians ; and since the region 
was claimed by Virginia as a part of her i)ossessions, the 
pioneers naturally looked to her for some sort of protec- 
tion. But Virginia was 
very busy with other affairs 
just then, and the handful 
of pioneers in distant Ken- 
tucky began to feel as if 
they had been forgotten. 

At last the Kentuckians 
chose two delegates to go 
to Virginia and lay theii 
case before the governor 
and the state convention at 
Williamsburg. George 

Rogers Clark was one of 
the delegates ; and in ac- 
cepting the appointment 
he declared that if theii 
petition should be refused, 
the Kentucky colonists 
ought to take matters in . 
their own hands and set 
up an independent state. 

When the two men 
reached Williamsburg, 

they found that the convention had already adjourned, 
and they must deal directly with the governor, Patrick 
Henry. The petition which they carried prayed that the 




^'%^^^ill^'>^ ^^ 



"Again in Kentucky, having walked 
there alone " 



152 



TJic Hannibal of tJic Northivcst 



new settlements might be formed into an independent 
county, and that the " prime riflemen " of Kentucky might 
be given an opportunity to do their part in the struggle that 

was then going on with 
Great Britain. Clark also 
asked for five hundred 
pounds of gunpowder for 
the use of the riflemen ; 
and when this was about 
to be refused he pointedly 
told the governor that a 
country which was not 
worth defending was not 
worth claiming. In the 
end he obtained the pow- 
der; and later, when the 
convention reassembled, 
the new county of Ken- 
tucky was formed with 
boundaries nearly the same as those of the present state. 




He pointedly told the governor 



II. THE "LONG KNIVES'' OF THE BORDER 

In the following spring the Indian raids upon the border 
settlements became so frequent as to be truly alarming. 
One savage band after another crossed the Ohio, 
hunting for scalps to sell to the British com- 
mander at Detroit. They skulked stealthily through the 
forest and appeared suddenly where they were least 
expected. The pioneer working in his clearing was shot 



1777 



The '' Lon<; A'/N'irs'' of t lie Border 153 

down by sonic hidden foe ; his house was burned ; his 
cattle were destroyed ; his family was carried into cap- 
tivity. The hunter returning home with his game was 
waylaid and murdered. Women going to the spring for 
water were tomahawked by lurking savages. Children 
playing on the doorstep were snatched up by some Indian 
hawk and never again seen by their parents. Outside of 
the forts no life \vas safe. If matters went on in this way, 
there would soon be an end to the settlements west of the 
AUeghanies. 

No man understood the situation better than George 
Rogers Clark ; and he at once began making plans not 
only to protect the Kentucky settlements but to save the 
whole Northw^est. He first sent two young hunters to 
Vincennes and the Illinois Country to learn how strong 
the British were at those places, and whether the French 
settlers were friendly to them. They came back in June, 
and their report was so favorable that Clark decided to 
make a bold movement for the conquest of the entire 
region north of the Ohio. The ''prime riflemen " of Ken- 
tucky were willing to follow him wherever he should lead, 
but they were too few to undertake so great an enterprise 
without aid from others. He must have more men ; and 
he therefore hurried back to Virginia to lay his scheme 
before the governor. Winter had already begun when he 
reached Williamsburg. 

Patrick Henry, the governor, listened with great inter- 
est to the plans which Clark unfolded. He was willing 
and anxious to help carry out the enterprise, but the fight- 
ing men of Virginia were all needed to oppose the British 



154 ^Z'^^' Haiiniba! of the Nort Invest 

armies along the seaboard, and none could be spared for 
the defense of the West. At last, however, Clark was 
given a colonel's commission, and was authorized to raise 
seven companies, each of forty men, in the backwoods 
settlements west of the Alleghanies. To each man was 
promised a bounty of three hundred acres of land in the 
conquered territory. 

When Colonel Clark was ready to leave Williamsburg 
the governor handed him two sets of instructions. One 
of these directed him to give full protection to 
the Kentucky settlements ; the other, which was 
kept secret, authorized him to attack the British post at 
Kaskaskia. The governor also gave him twelve hundred 
dollars in paper money, together with an order upon the 
American commandant at Fort Pitt for as much powder 
as his men would need. 

The name of George Rogers Clark was well known to 
the backwoodsmen in the valley of the Monongahela, and 
many of them hastened to enlist under his command. But 
in May, when he finally started from Redstone Old Fort 
(Brownsville), Pennsylvania, and by way of Fort Pitt em- 
barked upon the Ohio, only about one hundred and fifty 
men were ready to follow him. They went down the river 
in a small flotilla of boats, and with them were several 
families of fearless settlers, intent on finding new homes 
in the distant West, despite of the dangers to be encoun- 
tered there. At the mouth of the Kenawha River another 
company of backwoodsmen joined the little army ; but as 
yet no one except Clark himself supposed that they were 
to go beyond the Kentucky border. 



The '' Loiio; Knives'' of the Border 



155 



The men whom Colonel Clark was leading to the con- 
quest of the Northwest had been gathered from the scat- 
tered clearings, the hunters' camps, and the lonely log 
cabins along the streams which flow down the western 
slopes of the mountains. They were of the same type as 
their Kentucky kinsmen whom 
they were hastening to succor. 
You must not think of them 
as uniformed soldiers, marching 
in rank and file to the sound of 
the drum and fife. They w^ere 
clad in their hunter's garb: a fur 
cap, a fringed hunting shirt of 
buckskin, held at the waist by 
a broad belt, leggings also of 
buckskin, and moccasins of un- 
tanned leather. For weapons 
each carried a long flint-lock 
rifle, very heavy and clumsy, 
but sure to hit the mark at a 
hundred paces ; and some had 
scalping knives and small tom- 
ahawks stuck in their belts. 
They knew nothing about 
military drill, but they were 

skilled in woodcraft and in Indian fighting, and were 
famed alike for their hardihood and daring. Among 
the savages they were known as ** Long Knives," prob- 
ably because of their weapons, but more probably 
because of their fearless energy and the terrible deter- 




They were known as ' Long 
Knives ' " 



1 56 The Hannibal of the N art Invest 

mination with which they were accustomed to punish 
their enemies. 

When the flotilla reached the falls of the Ohio, all 
landed on a little island opposite the site of the present 
city of Louisville. Here the settlers who were in the 
company decided to remain with their families, and a 
stockade was built for their protection. Log cabins were 
put up inside of the stockade ; the trees and underbrush 
surrounding it were cleared away ; and corn was planted in 
the rich soil. The island was named Corn Island, and its 
location seemed so safe and withal so pleasant that many 
of the backwoodsmen were tempted to make it their home. 

Colonel Clark spent several days on Corn Island, drill- 
ing his rude soldiers ; and there he was joined by a number 
of recruits from the Kentucky settlements and from east- 
ern Tennessee. At length, when he deemed that the time 
had come for going forward, he made known to his men 
the plan which he had in mind to march against the British 
posts. The most of them received this announcement 
with cheers, and were eager to follow him ; but a few 
openly refused to go farther, and finally deserted him and 
returned to their homes. 

III. THE CAPTURE OF KASKASKIA 

On the 24th of June, the little army again embarked 

upon the Ohio. The boats were poled up the stream 

until they were fairly within the main channel ; 

then, being skillfully propelled with the current, 

all passed safely over the falls. At the very moment that 

they were shooting swiftly through the rapids, the sun was 



TJic Capture of Kaskaskia 157 

darkened in a total eclipse. The backwoodsmen, i[;no- 
rant of the cause of this phenomenon, hailed it as an omen 
of success, and with cheers and shouts of encoura<^ement 
rowed onward down the swift stream. 

After two days and two nights of steady work at the 
oars, the party landed near the spot where stood the old 
French post of Fort Massac, now deserted and in ruins. 
Some hunters who had just come from the French settle- 
ments on the Mississippi happened to be encamped at the 
same place, and one of them agreed to pilot the little army 
across the country. 

Colonel Clark had decided to strike the first blow 
at Kaskaskia, for he had learned that the British garrison 
there was not so strong as that at Vincennes. He had also 
made up his mind that in case he should not be successful, 
he would retreat across the Mississippi, and find refuge 
among the Spanish at St. Louis. He was now a hundred 
and thirty miles from Kaskaskia, and the country through 
which he intended to march would have been impassable 
to any ordinary army. It would have been easier to go 
all the way by water, but he knew that spies were kept 
on the Mississippi below the British posts, and these might 
carry the news to Kaskaskia of his coming and thus put 
the enemy on guard. He therefore hid his boats in a 
little creek near Fort Massac, and began the toilsome 
march across the country. 

The route lay for the most part through a low, flat, 
prairie region, intersected by sluggish streams and muddy 
swamps. It was a strange army that struggled through this 
untrodden wilderness to the conquest of an empire. There 



158 TJie Hannibal of tJic NortJnvest 

was neither a horse, nor a cannon, nor a uniformed soldier 
in the entire force. Wading through ponds and marshes, 
swimming across creeks and rivers, floundering in bound- 
less fields of black mud, toiling through seas of matted 
weeds and prairie grass, the dauntless Long Knives 
pushed bravely on in a northwestwardly course. 

Soon after dark on the 4th of July, they reached a point 
on the south bank of the Kaskaskia River, which they were 

told was less than a mile above the town. Here 
1778 

was a farmhouse in which a Frenchman lived 

with his large family ; and from the Frenchman, Colonel 

Clark learned many particulars about the state of affairs 

at the British post. A number of boats were found moored 

to the bank, and soon the whole army was rowed across to 

the opposite shore, and landed in the outskirts of the 

town. Colonel Clark hastily formed his men in fighting 

order, and made them a brief speech, telling them that 

** the place must be taken at all events." 

The garrison was under the command of a certain M. 
Rocheblave, a French officer who had joined the British 
army ; and at the time of Colonel Clark's arrival, most 
of the men were at a dance in the guard hall of the fort, 
having no thought that an enemy was marching against 
them. The commandant himself was in bed. 

Some of the Americans, with Colonel Clark at their head, 
burst suddenly upon the party of merrymakers, and de- 
manded the surrender of the fort. 

*' You may go on with your fun," said Clark, ** but re- 
member that you are now dancing under the flag of Vir- 
ginia, instead of that of Great Britain." 



The Capture of Kaskaskia 



IS9 



There was no resistance. Some of the Virginians who 
could speak French ran through the village, telling the 
people what had happened, and warning them that every 
person seen in the streets would be shot down. All the 
roads were guarded to prevent any one from escaping and 
carrying the alarm to the other villages. 

" I don't suppose," says Clark, ** that greater silence ever 




/ 



/ / 1% \ ^\ \ w<% ^ 

" ' You may go on with your fun,' said Clark 



reigned among the inhabitants of a place than did at this. 
Not a person could be seen ; not a word could be heard 
from them for some time. But, designedly, the greatest 
noise was kept up by our troops through every quarter of 
the town ; . . . and in about two hours the whole of the 
inhabitants were disarmed, and informed that if one was 
taken attempting to make his escape, he should be imme- 
diately put to death." 




i6o 



TJic Hannibal of tJie NortJiwest 



The French people were much alarmed. They had 
heard strange tales of the barbarity and cruelty of the 
Long Knives, and had been taught to regard them as wild 
beasts in human form. They waited in great fear through- 
out the night, expecting to be massacred in their homes. 

Early in the morning. Father Gibault, the priest of 
the village, came with some of the leading citizens, and 




We trust that you will not separate parents from their children ' " 



begged Colonel Clark to be merciful to the unoffending 
people. *' If they must be carried into captivity," said the 
priest, ** we trust that, in the goodness of your heart, you 
will not separate parents from their children ; and we also 
pray that you will permit each person to carry away such 
clothing and food as may be necessary for the support 
of life." 

*' Do you take us for savages ? " cried Colonel Clark. 
** Do you think that Americans intend to strip women and 



TJic Capture of Kaskaskia i6i 

children, or take the bread out of their mouths ? Please 
inform your people that they are at liberty to go about 
their business as usual, and that none of them will be 
disturbed." 

The priest lost no time in carrying the good news to his 
flock, and soon there was general rejoicing through the 
village. French settlers, relieved from all fear, hastened 
to welcome the Americans as their deliverers from the yoke 
of the British. M. Michel, one of the wealthiest men in 
the village, invited Colonel Clark to his home — a fine 
French house with broad piazzas on every side, an ideal 
place in the midst of half-savage surroundings. 

A volunteer company of French militia joined the 
Americans, and a detachment of thirty horsemen under 
Captain Bowman was sent up the left bank of the Missis- 
sippi to surprise Cahokia, and the other French settlements 
north of Kaskaskia. The people of these places, hearing 
how kindly the Americans had treated the Kaskaskians, 
joyfully welcomed them as friends. Fort Chartres, which 
had once been the " most commodious and best-built fort 
in North America," was found deserted and in ruins. The 
river had undermined its walls. 

Thus, without the loss of a man. Colonel Clark had by 
one bold stroke made himself the master of all the posts 
in the Illinois Country. This was but little more, however, 
than the beginning of the great work which he had set out 
to do. His next move was to overawe and conciliate the 
Indians. At Cahokia he held numerous councils with the 
chiefs of the leading tribes of the Northwest, and by his 
skillful management won their friendship. 

CONQ. O.N.W. — II 



1 62 TJic HaiDiiba! of the Noi't Invest 

" The Long Knife is our brother," said they. " We will 
help him fight the redcoats." 

" I do not want your help," said Clark. " All I ask is 
that you stand out of my way while I am driving the red- 
coats out of your country." 

Ten days after the capture of Kaskaskia Father Gibault 
and a few other Frenchmen of great influence were sent 
to Vincennes to persuade the settlers on the Wabash 
to surrender peaceably to the Americans. The British 
commander at Vincennes had lately gone to Detroit, and 
the place was without defenders. After listening to Father 
Gibault, the people went in a body to the church and there 
took the oath of allegiance to Virginia. Officers were 
chosen, a body of militia was formed, and they hastened 
to take possession of the empty fort, which was known as 
Fort Sackville, and to hoist the American flag above its 
walls. The French began now '* to act as freemen," says 
Colonel Clark. " They began as citizens of the United 
States, and informed the Indians that their old father, 
the king of France, was come to life again and was mad at 
them for fighting for the Enghsh, that they would advise 
them to make peace with the Americans as soon as they 
could. The Indians began to think seriously. Throughout 
the country this was the kind of language they generally got 
from their ancient friends of the Wabash and the Illinois." 

About the first of August, Father Gibault returned to 
Kaskaskia with the good news. Colonel Clark was greatly 
pleased with the success of the enterprise. Had 
he, indeed, conquered the whole of the North- 
west without fighting ? In order to give the people of 



** The Grand Door to tJic WabasJi'' 163 

Viucennos the support which they hiid a riij;ht to expect, 
he sent Captain Leonard Hehn with a single soldier whose 
name was Henry, to take charge of the post at that place. 

IV. "THE GRAND DOOR TO THE WABASH" 

The two Americans arrived safe at Vincennes and were 
welcomed with much heartiness by the French inhabitants. 
Captain Helm carried with him a letter from Colonel 
Clark to the chief of the Piankeshaws who lived in the 
neighborhood. This chief was called by his people ** The 
Grand Door to the Wabash," and such was his power that 
nothing could be done among the Indians without his con- 
sent. Colonel Clark was very anxious, therefore, to make 
this man his friend. 

In a few days a messenger brought from the chief an 
answer to the letter. He told Captain Helm that he was 
glad to see one of the Long-Knife chiefs in Vincennes ; 
but that, since the matter to be decided was an important 
one, he must talk with his counselors about it. Would 
not the chief of the Long Knives be patient } 

The captain tried to be very patient, and in the course 
of time he received an invitation to attend a council of 
the Piankeshaws and their friends. The council met; the 
chiefs and the captain smoked long and solemnly; and 
then the Grand Door to the Wabash arose to speak. He 
declared that the eyes of his people had been opened and 
that his warriors would bloody the land no more for the 
English. He leaped in the air, struck his breast, called 
himself a brave chief, said that he was a Long Knife, and 



164 TJic Hannibal of the Nor'tJnvest 

took Captain Helm by the hands. The other chiefs fol- 
lowed his example, and the evening was spent in merriment. 
The next day Captain Helm went back to his fort, glad that 
this matter had been brought to so happy an ending. 

In the meanwhile, still other good fortune was in store 
for Colonel Clark at Kaskaskia. A rich Spanish trader 
named Francois Vigo, whose home was at the Spanish 
post of St. Louis, came across the river to visit him. He 
was anxious, he said, to take the hand of the American 
commander who had so skillfully captured the Illinois 
posts. He was so highly pleased with what had been 
done that he gave Clark twelve thousand dollars in gold, 
in exchange for written orders on the French commandant 
at New Orleans ; for France had lately made a treaty with 
the United States and was now actively aiding the Ameri- 
cans in their war for freedom. Not long afterward, Vigo 
suppUed Clark with still other funds ; and from New 
Orleans came seventy-three hundred dollars in gold, be- 
sides a boat load of powder and swivels for the use of the 
backwoods army. 

Without the aid of Vigo, Colonel Clark could not 
have paid his soldiers, he could not have maintained him- 
self in the IlUnois Country, and the conquest of the North- 
west might never have been completed. It is sad to relate 
that this benefactor of our country, Francois Vigo, was 
never repaid for the services which he so generously 
rendered. Nearly sixty years later he died at Terre 
Haute, Indiana, childless and in poverty, while nearly 
twenty thousand dollars which he had lent to Clark 
remained unpaid. A county in Indiana has been named 



The '' Ilair-Ihiycr (jcucrar' 165 

in his honor. The people of the Northwest should re- 
member his services and build him a monument. 

When the news of Clark's conquest reached the ca])ital 
of Virginia, the governor and assembly began at once to 
devise means for holding on to the pos^sessions thus 
wrested from Great Britain. The whole country north 
of the Ohio was erected into a new county, to be known 
as the County of IlHnois, with its seat of government at 
Kaskaskia. Captain John Todd, a Virginian of influence 
who was serving in Clark's army, was appointed the first 
governor of this vast region, and he was instructed to 
''cultivate and emulate the affections of the French and 
Indians," and to aid Colonel Clark in his military operations. 



V. THE '-HAIR-BUYER GENERAL" 

Long before any word of these matters could be carried 
to Kaskaskia, a new danger threatened which seemed 
likely to turn the tide of American success. Of course 
the news of Clark's invasion soon reached the ears of 
Henry Hamilton, the lieutenant-governor of Canada and 
British commandant at Detroit. The ''hair-buyer gen- 
eral," as Hamilton was called on account of his paying 
bounties for scalps, was just then busy planning an expe- 
dition against Fort Pitt ; for he had never dreamed that 
the Americans would venture to attack the Illinois posts. 
On the very day that the first rumor came of the surrender 
of Vincennes he had sent out a party of savage warriors 
to harry the defenseless settlements beyond the Ohio. " I 
pray the Master of Life to give you success," he said, as 



1 66 The Hannibal of tJic Nort Invest 

he presented a bright new tomahawk to a painted chief 
and sent him forth on his bloody errand. 

The first news from Vincennes did not trouble him 
much. " The post has probably been surprised by a 
strolling company of backwoodsmen," he said; "it will 
be easy enough to take it again." But when word came 
soon after that not only Vincennes but all the Illinois 
posts were in the hands of the Americans, he began to 
bestir himself. He saw that he must make some decisive 
movement or else lose the entire Northwest. His first 
care was to secure the help of his Indian neighbors. He 
held a great powwow with the Ottawas, the Pottawatto- 
mies, and the Chippewas whose villages were near Detroit. 
Oxen were roasted whole over glowing heaps of charcoal ; 
and red men and white men feasted together, and danced 
the war dance, and whetted their scalping knives, and 
vowed to stand by each other as brothers until every Long- 
Knife rebel was destroyed. 

For many days every man at Detroit — British, French, 
or Indian — was busy helping to get things ready. Fifteen 
large boats were loaded with provisions, powder and lead, 
clothing, and other supplies, and sent on in advance to the 
mouth of the Maumee. On the 7th of October, Hamilton 
with his little army was ready to start. His force con- 
sisted of a hundred and seventy-seven British and French, 
and about sixty Indians ; but so many other savages 
joined him on the way that before he reached Vincennes 
he found himself in command of more than five hundred 
men. 

As the men in their boats pushed off into the Detroit 



riu 



Uaii-lhi Ycr (icucral 



167 



River, Fcither Potior, tlic venerable Jesuit priest, stood on 
the bank and ^ave his solemn blessini;- to the Freneh vol- 
unteers who were thus embarking in the service of the 
king of Kngkmd. The party rowed down the Detroit 
River to Lake Erie, and then crossed, in the face of a 
blinding snowstorm, to a point near the mouth of the 




"To Little River, one of the sources of the Wabash " 

Maumee, where now stands the city of Toledo. There 
they remained a day, putting their boats in order and 
shivering with cold, for the wind was so strong that they 
could not light a fire. Very early on the following morn- 
ing they began the ascent of the river, some in boats, some 
in canoes, and some marching in a disorderly manner 
along the shore. 

There had been but little rain during the fall, and the 
w^aters of the Maumee were very low. In some places the 



1 68 TJic Hannibal of tJic Nortliivest 

boats scraped upon the muddy bottom, or grounded upon 
a sand bank. The progress of the party was very slow, 
and it took more than two weeks to reach the portage at 
the forks of the river. Some of the boats, with all the 
baggage, besides several canoes, were then carried nine 
miles to Little River, one of the sources of the Wabash. 
** Here," says Hamilton, " the waters were so uncommonly 
low that we should not have been able to pass but that at 
a distance of four miles from the landing place the beavers 
had made a dam which kept up the water ; this we cut 
through to give a passage to our boats, and having taken 
in our lading at the landing passed all the boats. The 
beaver are never molested at that place by the traders or 
Indians, and soon repair their dam, which is a most ser- 
viceable work upon this difficult communication." 

Twenty miles below this place the little army reached 
the Wabash, but their troubles were not yet at an end. 
The river was not only shallow, but was full of floating 
ice, which threatened to crush the boats, and made all 
progress dangerous. " It was sometimes a day's work," 
says Hamilton, *' to get the distance of half a league." 
They stopped at every Indian village to hold council with 
the chiefs, to give presents, and to persuade the warriors 
to join them. Near the Wea village, where stood the old 
fort of Ouiatenon, they captured four Frenchmen from 
Vincennes, whom Captain Helm had sent out as scouts 
to look for their approach. Soon afterward heavy rains 
came on, and the river grew deeper. The boats were now 
more easily managed, and the rest of the voyage was 
soon accomplished. Hamilton, with his motley following, 



The ** I fair-Buyer General 



169 



reached Vincenncs on the 17th of Decemher, having been 
seventy-one days in coming from Detroit. 

Captain Helm did not learn of the approach of the enemy 
until the red coats of the British were within sight of the 
town. The French militia who had helped him garrison the 
fort were much alarmed, 
for they knew that 
they could not hold the 
place against so strong a 
force. They were there- 
fore allowed to go to their 
homes, and the only gar- 
rison left in the fort was 
Captain Helm and his 
single soldier, Henry. 
How should these two 
men defend the place 
against five hundred } 
Fort Sackville was in a 
half-ruined plight. It was 
a mere stockade, without 
barracks, and was in no 
way fitted to withstand a 
siege. There was not 

even a well inside the walls, and there was no lock to the 
gate. But it contained two cannon, two swivels, and some 
ammunition ; and Captain Helm made up his mind not 
to surrender without some show of resistance. 

A loaded cannon was wheeled to the open gate, and 
Henry stood by it, ready to fire upon the approaching 




No man shall enter here until I know 
the terms ' " 



170 TJie Hannibal of the NortJnvest 

enemy. Hamilton, at the head of his British regulars, 
came forward and demanded the surrender of the garrison. 

** No man shall enter here," said Captain Helm, " until 
I know the terms." 

" You shall have the honors of war," said Hamilton, 
supposing that the fort was filled with Long Knives. 

Helm, after a short parley, accepted the terms, and 
between lines of red-coated British and painted Indians 
the garrison marched out — one officer and one man. 
Just what were Hamilton's feelings v/hen he saw that 
this was the entire strength of the Americans at Vin- 
cennes he does not tell us. He at once took possession 
of the fort, and began to put it in better condition. Some 
of his Indian allies camped on the outskirts of the town, 
and others returned to their homes. The winter was 
now well begun, and he deemed it prudent to wait 
until spring before marching against Colonel Clark at 
Kaskaskia. 

On the second day after taking the fort, Hamilton sum- 
moned all the people of Vincennes to meet in the church. 
There were in all six hundred and twenty-one men, women, 
and children ; but some of the men were absent hunting 
buffaloes. When they had assembled according to his 
order, he required them to ask God's forgiveness for being 
so wicked as to take sides with the Americans ; and then 
every man was made to take an oath to be a good and 
faithful subject of the king of England. It is not likely 
that many of these light-hearted Frenchmen regarded this 
oath as a binding one, or remembered it longer than their 
own safety required. 



The Winnmg of Vine nines 1 71 

VI. THE WINNING OF VINCENNES 

In the meanwhile Colonel Clark was spending most of 

his time at Cahokia, making treaties with the Indians and 

otherwise strengthening his position. It was not until in 

January that he heard that Hamilton had retaken Vincennes. 

What should he do ? He knew that if he staid 

1770 
in the Illinois towns until spring, the British 

and Indians would march against him with a superior 
force, and either capture his little band of backwoodsmen 
or drive them across the Mississippi. But he was not 
the man to think of retreating. He began at once to 
prepare for defense. He sent out scouts and runners 
to keep him informed of Hamilton's movements. He 
strengthened the fort at Kaskaskia. He drilled his sol- 
diers every day and kept them in constant readiness for 
an attack. 

One day near the end of January Colonel Vigo suddenly 
appeared in Kaskaskia, bringing important news from the 
Wabash. Some time before Christmas he had gone from 
Kaskaskia to Vincennes to carry money and other aid to 
Captain Helm. Not knowing that the latter place had 
been captured by the British, he had been taken prisoner 
by an Indian scouting party and delivered up to the "hair- 
buyer general." Hamilton, he said, had treated him 
kindly, and, as he was a Spanish citizen, had allowed 
him to return to St. Louis upon his promise that, during 
his journey thither, he should do nothing to injure the 
British cause. Vigo had hastened back to St. Louis; 
and then, feeling no longer bound by his promise, he 



1^2 Tlie Hannibal of the Northivcst 

had recrossed the Mississippi and hurried to Kaskaskia 
to tell Colonel Clark all that he had learned. 

He said that Hamilton had sent the most of his troops 
back to Detroit, and that only about eighty men remained 
in the garrison at Vincennes. Most of the Indians also 
were gone to their homes for the winter. It was Hamil- 
ton's intention to recall all these in the early spring and, 
with five hundred southern Indians who had promised to 
join him, make an attack up Kaskaskia. 

" I think that this is your time for action," said Vigo. 

" I think so, too," answered Clark ; and he began to get 
ready to march immediately against Vincennes. Within a 
week he had equipped a large rowboat with two small 
cannon and six swivels and loaded her with supplies. 
This boat, which he named the Willing, he placed in com- 
mand of Captain John Rogers with forty-six men, who 
was directed to take her round to the mouth of the Wabash 
and there wait for further orders. On the afternoon of 
the 4th of February, the Willing started on her 
voyage, while the soldiers and the people of Kas- 
kaskia stood on the shore and bade her Godspeed. It is 
worth remembering that she was the first American gun- 
boat that ever floated on our inland waters. 

The very next day Colonel Clark with one hundred and 
seventy men marched out of Kaskaskia. Father Gibault, 
standing by the roadside, blessed the backwoods heroes as 
they passed, and the whole town turned out to see them 
start on their long journey. They crossed the Kaskaskia 
River and marched to a knoll three miles away, where they 
encamped to wait for some needful supplies. Two days 



The Wiiuiiug of Vincciincs 173 

later they started in earnest across the bleak prairies. The 
distance to Vincennes by the route which they followed 
was more than two hundred miles. The winter had been 
a mild one, and the sprin<^ freshets had already begun. The 
prairies were covered with mud and ice, the water courses 
were swollen, the meadows were flooded, there were no 
roads, no bridges. Often the men were obliged to wade ; 
sometimes they were waist deep in water ; none but those 
accustomed to the hardships of pioneer Hfe could have 
endured that painful march. But Clark himself led them, 
suffering cold and hunger and privation with the rest, and 
by his cheerful words encouraging every man to do his best. 

On the thirteenth day after starting, they were within 
nine miles of Vincennes, and heard the morning gun from 
the fort. But the whole country was covered with water, 
and there was no place on which to encamp. It was neces- 
sary now to change their course, and on the following morn- 
ing they reached a spot of dry ground on the bank of the 
Wabash some distance below the town. Here they paused 
for a little rest. A rough canoe was hewn from a drifting 
log, and two men undertook to paddle it down the river to 
meet the Willing. 

Soon afterward a boat with five Frenchmen in it was 
seen crossing the stream. On being hailed by the sentry, 
the men came ashore and were questioned by Colonel Clark. 
They told him that the British in the fort were resting at 
their ease and had no thought of an enemy being near. 
The people of Vincennes, they said, were heartily tired of 
English rule and would gladly welcome the Virginians. 
They not only offered Colonel Clark their boat, but told 



174 The Hannibal of the Northivest 

him of two canoes that were adrift above them and could 
easily be obtained. 

Three days later, in the boat and the canoes, the army 
was ferried across the Wabash to a Httle hill, called by the 
Frenchmen the " Mamelle." From this spot the soldiers 
were obliged to wade four miles through water which came 
sometimes to their necks. *' We plunged into it with cour- 
age," says one of the men, " Colonel Clark being first, tak- 
ing care to have the boats take those that were weak and 
numbed with cold." 

They finally reached a dry spot of ground covering 
about ten acres, and there the little army had a much-needed 
rest. " Fortunately, as if designed by Providence," says 
Colonel Clark, ** a canoe of Indian squaws and children 
was coming up to town and took through part of the plain 
as a nigh way. It was discovered by our canoes. They 
gave chase and took the Indian canoe, on board of which 
was near half a quarter of buffalo, some corn, tallow, and 
kettles. This was a grand prize, and was invaluable. 
Broth was immediately made and served out to the most 
weakly with care. This little refreshment, and fine weather, 
by the afternoon, gave new life to the whole. Crossing a 
narrow deep lake, in the canoes, and marching some dis- 
tance, we came to a copse of timber called Warriors Island. 
We were now in full view of the town, not a shrub between 
us, at about two miles distant." 

In the meanwhile Hamilton, secure in his fort, was 
unaware of the approach of an enemy. He supposed that 
Clark and his backwoodsmen were still in Kaskaskia. One 
night word was brought to him that a number of camp fires 



The Winning of Vinccnncs 1/5 

could be seen on the high ground south of the town. This 
did not alarm him, for he supposed that they had been 
built by Indians ; but in the morning he sent out a company 
of scouts to find out about them. The scouts, rather than 
cross the great stretch of water that lay between them and 
the place where the fires were seen, rode out by another 
way and failed to find anything at all. That very evening 
Clark and his men made a bold rush into the town. Some 
of the soldiers went through the streets to let the people 
know of their coming, and a band of riflemen pushed for- 
ward and threw up earthworks in front of the fort. 

Hamilton, when he first heard the noise in the town, 
supposed that it was made by some carousing Indians ; but 
when he saw the Americans actually within rifle shot of the 
fort he hastily manned his guns and tried to open fire upon 
them. By this time many of Clark's men were in position, 
and as often as the portholes were opened, they poured in 
such a volley of musket shots that the cannon were very soon 
silenced. Several men in the fort were severely wounded. 

The next morning Colonel Clark sent a letter to Hamil- 
ton ordering him to surrender, and declaring that if it be- 
came necessary to storm the fort he should have the 
" treatment justly due to a murderer." While waiting for 
answer to this summons the Americans ate a breakfast 
which had been supplied to them by the townspeople. It 
was the first " meal of victuals " they had had for six days. 

In a short time an answer came from the fort : " Lieu- 
tenant-Governor Hamilton begs leave to acquaint Colonel 
Clark that he and his garrison are not disposed to be awed 
into any action unworthy of British subjects." 



176 TJie Hannibal of tJic NortJnvest 

Then the firing began again, hot on both sides ; but in 
the afternoon Hamilton sent a second letter, this time ask- 
ing for a truce of three days. Clark answered that, while he 
would consider no terms but surrender, he would consent 
to have a conference at the church, if Hamilton would 
meet him there with Captain Helm who was a prisoner in 
the fort. 

There was a stormy meeting at the church. Hamilton 
tried in vain to secure favorable terms of surrender ; while 
Clark, stubbornly refusing, upbraided him for sending 
out Indian marauding parties to lay waste the border 
settlements. '* I told him that I knew the greater part of 
the principal Indian partisans of Detroit were with him ; 
that I wanted an excuse to put them to death, or otherwise 
treat them as I thought proper ; that the cries of the 
widows and the fatherless, on the frontiers, now required 
their blood at my hands." 

In the meantime a terrible tragedy was going on outside. 
A party of Indians whom Hamilton had sent across the 
Ohio on a foray upon the border settlements had just 
returned in triumph, expecting the usual rewards. As 
they did not know that the Americans were in the town, 
they were easily entrapped and captured. While Clark 
was parleying in the church, his men tomahawked these 
savages in front of the fort and threw their bodies into 
the river. 

Before the day was ended, Hamilton agreed that the 
garrison should surrender as prisoners of war. It was a 
great humiliation to him to be obhged to yield, as he said, 
to ** a set of uncivilized Viro:inia woodsmen armed with 



The Wiuniiig of Viiiccnncs \yy 

rifles " ; but what else could he do ? His men — seventy- 
nine in all — marched out and laid down their arms. The 
British flag was hauled down, the American colors were 
again hoisted, and the stockade received a new name, 
Fort Patrick Henry. 

News had already come that some volunteers from 
Detroit were on their way down the Wabash to reinforce 
Hamilton, bringing with them several boat loads of pro- 
visions, clothing, and ammunition. No sooner was the 
fort in his hands than Colonel Clark sent Captain Helm 
with fifty-two men to meet and capture this party. Three 
weeks later Helm returned, having met the boats near 
Ouiatenon and taken forty prisoners besides the supplies 
which were valued at fifty thousand dollars. At about 
the same time the gunboat Willing arrived, having been 
long delayed by the strong currents of the flooded river. 
The men on board were much cast down because they 
were too late to help with the fighting ; but they rejoiced 
with their comrades over the complete victory that had 
been gained. 

So many prisoners had been taken, that Clark found 
himself unable to keep them, and he released the most of 
them on parole. Hamilton and his leading officers were 
sent under a guard to Virginia. The journey 
thither, as we already know, was a long and hard 
one in those days, and they traveled for the greater part 
of the way on foot. It was already May when the guard 
reached Williamsburg, and they were the first to tell in 
Virginia the story of the conquest of Vincennes. So 
slowly did news travel in those days. 

CON(>. O.X.W. — 12 



178 



TJie Hannibal of tJic NortJiivcst 



Hamilton, for "instigating the Indians to practice every 
species of barbarism upon American citizens without dis- 
tinction of age, sex, or condition," was imprisoned in irons. 
He remained a prisoner for nearly eighteen months, and 
was then permitted to go to New York on parole. 

Colonel Clark was now in full control of the Illinois 
Country and the Wabash Valley, and the British had no 
longer a sufficient force at Detroit to cause him any un- 




" So slowly did news travel in those days " 



easiness. In a word, by a bold march and a series of 
masterly movements comparable to the famous achieve- 
ments of Hannibal in olden times, he had won the entire 
Northwest for the United States of America. When the 
treaty of peace should be signed at the close of the Revolu- 
tionary War, the vast region between the Ohio and the 
Great Lakes would not be a part of Canada but a posses- 
sion of the new republic. 



THE MAGNA CHARTA OF THE NORTHWEST 

I. THE (2UEST10N OF OWNERSHIP 

BY the treaty of peace signed at Paris after the close 
of the Revokitionary War, the whole of the North- 
west, extending to the Lake of the Woods and 
the Mississippi River, was transferred to the 
United States. Neither British nor Americans had any 
true idea of the vast importance of this region. The Brit- 
ish regarded it only as an Indian country, a wilderness of 
woods and prairies likely to remain for ages without civi- 
lized inhabitants. It was valuable for its furs and the 
profits that might be derived from trade with the In- 
dians — nothing else. The Americans claimed it by right 
of conquest. They knew something about the wonderful 
richness of its soil, and supposed that certain portions 
might in time become settled by the overflowing popula- 
tion of the Atlantic states. " The Americans, in pushing 
their possessions to the distant West, are preparing for 
their remote posterity a communication with the Pacific," 
wrote one of the ministers of France. This was true, but 
the Americans did not realize that it was so. 

One of the first great questions to be settled by the 
American Congress was, " To which of the states does the 
territory northwest of the river Ohio belong ? " Virginia 
claimed almost the whole of it, and cited the charter 

1-79 



i8o TJie Magna CJiarta of the NortJnvcst 

which she had received from King James I. in 1609, and 
which described her boundaries as including almost every- 
thing between the Atlantic and the Pacific. But Connect- 
icut also had an old charter, granting to her the zone lying 
between 41^0' and 42° 2' north latitude, and extending from 
Rhode Island to the South Sea. She therefore laid claim 
to a strip about sixty miles broad, stretching across the 
whole width of the Northwest. Massachusetts, for a simi- 
lar reason, claimed a somewhat wider strip north of that 
of Connecticut. New York, being unable to show any 
charter from an English king, based her claims upon the 
deed by which the Iroquois Indians, more than eighty years 
before, had ceded away all their hunting grounds between 
the Great Lakes and the Ohio. 

There is no telling how the disputes growing out of these 
conflicting claims would have been settled, had it not been 
for the firmness of the three small states, Delaware, New 
Jersey, and Maryland. These states had always had defi- 
nite western boundaries, and they were unable to find any 
excuse whatever for claiming for themselves a part of the 
territory beyond the Alleghanies. They believed that the 
possession of the Northwest by Virginia, or any other of 
the larger states, would give that state too much power, 
and be injurious to the nation as a whole ; and they refused 
to join the Union unless the sole control of that 
territory should be given to the federal govern- 
ment. Delaware and New Jersey soon gave up the fight; 
but Maryland held out until New York agreed to sur- 
render everything to the jurisdiction of Congress. It was 
not long until Virginia, whose claim was probably stronger 



The Question of Ownership i8i 

than that of any other state, gave up her title to the North- 
west. Two years later, Massachusetts followed suit, and 
deeded to the Federal government all her lands west of 
the western boundary of New York. The territory thus 
ceded embraced the southern half of the present states of 
Michigan and Wisconsin. 

Connecticut was loth to give up her claims; but in 1786 
she yielded so far as to cede all of her strip except that 
portion which lay between its eastern boundary and a 
north and south line drawn a hundred and twenty miles 
west of that boundary. The tract which she thus retained 
extended across the northern part of Ohio, and has since 
been known as the Western Reserve. It was supposed to 
include about four million five hundred thousand acres ; but 
of course it had never been surveyed, and its exact area 
was unknown. With the exception of this reservation, 
which was to remain for some time under the control of 
Connecticut, the whole of the Old Northwest was now 
united as one territory under the government of the 
Congress of the United States. It was known officially 
and on the maps as "The Territory Northwest of the 
River Ohio." 

But the states were not the only claimants which it be- 
came necessary to satisfy. The Indians whose homes and 
hunting grounds were in this region, had really the best 
right to it. It is true that they did not make much use 
of the land, and they scarcely knew what was meant by 
land ownership. But it would not have been just to de- 
prive them of their hunting grounds without giving them 
something in return. 



1 82 The Magna Chart a of the Xorthwest 

Treaties were therefore held with the chiefs of the Iro- 
quois and with those of their vassal tribes, the Wyaiidots, 
Chippewas, Ottawas, Delawares, and Shawnees ; and the 
red men agreed to give up all claims to the lands immedi- 
ately adjoining the Ohio, keeping for themselves only a few 
reservations, and the regions bordering the lakes. They 
of course had but a very dim understanding of what this 
compact meant. The most of them supposed that the 
wilderness would still remain in its wildness, and that they 
would be free to come and go, just as in the time when the 
French were the owners of the soil. 



II. THE GREAT ORDINAxNCE 

The Northwest being now a part of the public domain 

of the United States, it became the duty of Congress to 

devise laws for its government. An Ordinance 
1787 

was therefore passed which secured to the future 

inhabitants of that region the rights of freemen, and has- 
tened the coming of that prosperity which gives to the 
Northwest its preeminence to-day. Among the public 
documents of all ages this Ordinance deserves to be 
ranked with the Declaration of Independence and the 
Magna Charta of Old England — documents which, as 
Lord Brougham has said, should always hang in the cabi- 
nets of kings. ** I doubt," says Daniel Webster, ** whether 
one single law of any lawgiver, ancient or modern, has 
produced effects of more distinct, marked, and lasting 
character than the Ordinance of 1787." 

This Ordinance provided that the territory, when its 



The Great Ordinance 183 

population became sufficiently lar^^e, mi^ht be divided into 
not less than three nor more than five states, and that 
whenever any state should have sixty thousand inhabitants 
it might be admitted into the Union " on an equal footing 
with the original states in all respects whatever." More- 
over, these states, when once in the Union, could never be 
separated from it by any means or under any circumstances. 

The most important provisions were those relating to 
slavery and education — they marked a distinct step in 
advance of any other public utterances that had ever been 
made. When we remember that slaves were held at that 
time in all the original states, and that there was no gen- 
eral sentiment in favor of universal freedom, we can but 
wonder at this declaration : " Tliere sJiall be neither sla- 
very nor involuntary servitude in the said lerritory, other- 
wise than in the punishment of crimes whe^'cof the party 
shall have been duly convicted!' 

The honor of originating this section of the great Ordi- 
nance has been claimed for both Thomas Jefferson of Vir- 
ginia and Nathan Dane of Massachusetts. It is certain 
that Richard Henry Lee and William Grayson, delegates 
in Congress from Virginia, were also very active in laboring 
for its passage. And it is interesting to remember that 
it was finally adopted unanimously, and that of the eigh- 
teen delegates who voted for it eleven were from Southern 
states. 

Yet, notwithstanding the prohibition of slavery, invol- 
untary servitude was long permitted in the Northwest. 
Slavery had been authorized there by Louis XIV., while 
the country was under the rule of France. Many of the 



1 84 The Magna Charta of tJic NortJiwcst 

French settlers at Kaskaskia and on the Wabash were 
still the owners of slaves, and their right to continue to 
hold them was not disputed. Other settlers who after- 
ward came into the territory from the south or the east 
sometimes brought with them the bondmen which the laws 
of the older states permitted them to own, and they were 
seldom molested. Indeed, for several years, the sentiment 
of the people in the Northwest was favorable to slavery, 
and at one time a convention was called and a petition 
drawn up, praying Congress to suspend this article of the 
Ordinance. It was not until more than fifty years after 
this region became a part of the American repubUc that 
slavery was wholly abolished within its limits. 

The article on education was rather indefinite in its na- 
ture, for it made nothing obligatory ; but it served as a 
rallying-cry for the friends of progress, and in the years 
that followed helped not a little in promoting the cause of 
the public schools. It was very brief : ''Religion, morality, 
and knowledge being necessary to good government and tJie 
Jiappiness of mankind, schools and the means of education 
shall forever be e neon raged.'' 

Two years before this, Congress had passed a land ordi- 
nance providing for the survey and sale of the millions of 
acres included in the public domain north of the Ohio. 
This ordinance directed that in every congressional town- 
ship of thirty-six sections of land, one section (six hundred 
and forty acres) should be reserved ** for the maintenance 
of common schools within the said township." This was 
the beginning of a custom which has resulted in giving to 
every western state in the Union a magnificent school 



The Cinat Oniinancc 



185 



fund; for from that time the practice of settin<; apart for 
educational purposes one thirty-sixth of all the public lands 
has been always observed. It ^ave to the public schools 
in the five states of the Old Northwest nearly five millions 
of acres, the sale of 
which has produced for 
the free education of her 
children nearly twenty 
millions of dollars. It 
also gave to each state 
one entire township, or 
a little more than twenty- 
three thousand acres for 
the founding and sup- 
port of a state university. 
Among other provi- 
sions of the great Ordi- 
nance was one doing 
away with the old Eng- 
lish law of primogeniture, and declaring that all the 
property of a deceased person should be divided equally 
among his children. Another gave to every person the 
right to worship as he believed best. Still another de- 
clared that every citizen having a freehold of fifty acres 
should be entitled to vote. The section which related to 
the Indians is interesting chiefly because of the manner 
in which it was afterward wholly ignored. " T/ie utmost 
good faith shall always be observed toivard the Indians ; 
their lands and their property shall never be taken from 
them without their consent ; and in their property, rights, 



6 


5 


4 









1 


7 


8 


9 


10 


11 


12 


18 


17 


SCHOOL 
SECTION 


15 


14 


13 


19 


20 


21 


22 


23 


24 


30 


29 


28 


27 


26 


25 


31 


32 


33 


34 


3.J 


36 



Diagram of a Congressional Township, 
showing how the sections were num- 
bered 



1 86 The Magna Chart a of the Northivest 

and liberty they shall never be invaded or disturbed, unless 
in just and huvful wars authorised by Congress ; but laivs, 
founded in justice and humanity, shall from time to time 
be made for preventing wrongs being done to them, and for 
preserving peace and friendsJiip zvith tJiem'' 



HOW THE WILDERNESS WAS SUBDUED 

SETTLERS ON THE OHIO 
I. THE FIRST COLONY 

TEN days after the passage of the great Ordinance, Con- 
gress made its first important sale of public lands in 
the Northwest The buyers were a company of New 
England speculators calling themselves the Ohio 
Company (very different from the first ''Ohio 
Company " of which Washington was a member), and their 
leader was a Massachusetts clergyman named Manasseh 
Cutler. The land which they had selected fronted upon 
the north bank of the Ohio, and lay chiefly between the 
mouth of the Muskingum and that of the Scioto.^ It was 
supposed to contain one million five hundred thousand 
acres, and the amount to be paid for it was one million 
dollars in soldiers' certificates. 

Already a great tide of immigration into the newly 
opened region had set in from the East. While some of 
the first people to come were honest hunters, who loved 
the woods and felt a pure delight in facing the dangers of 
pioneer life, others were merely the refuse of the older 
settlements, restless vagabonds such as are always found 

1 See map on page 210. 
187 



1 88 



Sctt/crs on tJie Ohio 



moving along in the van of civilization 



Many were ruf- 
fians of the worst sort, criminals escaped from justice, 
half-savages, who came into the wilderness in order to 
indulge their wicked instincts. These built their cabins 
and squatted here and there, wherever their fancy led 
them. They never stopped to ask about the ownership 




"These flatboats were rude affairs " 

of the land, but were regardless alike of the rights of the 
Indians and of the laws of their own government. 

Following this scum of the earth came the real settlers 
• — men who were attracted thither by the cheapness of the 
land and its amazing fertility, and who hoped to build in 
the new country permanent homes for themselves and 
their children. They crossed the mountains in wagons, 
carrying all their earthly goods with them. When they 
reached the Youghiogheny, or the Monongahela, flatboats 



The First Colony 189 

were built to carry them to Pittsbur^^, and thence down 
the Ohio to such places as they deemed most inviting 
for new settlements. These flatboats were rude affairs, 
hastily put together, and built neither for speed nor for 
comfort. They carried an average of about twenty per- 
sons each, besides livestock, household goods, and farming 
implements. On the decks of the larger boats rough 
shelters of canvas or of boards were built for the protec- 
tion of the women and children during the tedious voyage. 
It is said that within the first four months of the year 1788 
more than two hundred of these rude craft passed down 
the river to various points along its shores. 

As soon as the Ohio Company had secured a title to its 
gr-eat tract in the Muskingum Valley, efforts w^ere made to 

induce people of the better sort, and especially 

1788 
old soldiers whom the war had made poor, to go 

west and settle upon its lands. Early in the spring, a 
large party of New Englanders, with General Rufus Put- 
nam as their leader, set out for the country of promise. A 
long barge, bullet-proof and stanch, had been built for 
them on the Youghiogheny, and named the Mayflower in 
memory of the historic vessel which had borne the Pilgrim 
Fathers to the shores of the New World. 

On the second day of April, the pioneers with their 
families and their household effects were safely embarked, 
and the Mayflower was swiftly propelled down the stream, 
now swollen and turbulent with the rains of spring. The 
voyage was marked by few adventures. The boat glided 
into the broader stream of the Monongahela, and holding 
steadily on its way, was soon floating past the heights 



1 90 



Settlers OH tJie OJiio 



where stood Fort Pitt, the key to the Ohio Valley. Once 
on the beautiful river, the progress of the voyagers was 
quite rapid ; and on the seventh of the month, they saw 
through the fog of the spring morning the dim outlines 

of a stockade — Fort Har- 
mar — below the mouth of 
the Muskingum. Here 
they brought the May- 
floiver to a halt ; with great 
labor they pushed her 
against the current, and 
guided her into the smaller 
stream where the water 
flowed with less turbulence. 
The peninsula on their 
right was covered with a 
growth of forest trees 
among which could be seen 
strange mounds and earth- 
works, built ages before by 
an unknown race. It was 
a lovely spot, and there the 
pioneers decided to make 
their homes. The May- 
Jlowei' was moored to the 
eastern bank of the Muskingum, and the little company 
disembarked. Log cabins were hastily built ; plots of 
ground were cleared ; grain was planted ; and a stockade, 
called Campus Martins, was erected for security against 
the Indians. 




"The Fourth of July was celebrated 



TJic First Colojiy 191 

Such was the bc^i;inning of the first American colony 
planted within the limits of the Old Northwest. " No 
colony in America," said Washington, "was ever settled 
under such favorable circumstances." In the course of the 
first year, a hundred and thirty-two men, with fifteen 
families, arrived, and the new city of Marietta — so named 
in honor of the French queen, Marie Antoinette — was 
laid out. 

The Fourth of July was celebrated with great speech- 
making, and a banquet at which the colonists and their 
visitors were regaled with "venison barbecued, buffalo 
steaks, bear meat, wild fowl, and a little pork, as the 
choicest luxury of all." Five days later. General 
St. Clair, the newly appointed governor of the 
Northwest Territory, arrived at the settlement ; and on the 
fifteenth, he made his grand public entrance into the little 
city, where he was received by General Putnam and the 
citizens " with the most sincere and universal congratu- 
lations." 

Before the summer was ended the governor had organized 
a great tract of territory, including the eastern half of the 
present state of Ohio, into a county, which he named Wash- 
ington County. Judges and other officers were appointed, 
and a county court was opened in one of the blockhouses 
of the Campus Martins. It was a great day in the annals 
of the Old Northwest, for it marked the beginning of a 
new order of things — the American order. The sheriff, 
from the doorstep of the rude little courthouse, made 
proclamation : — " Oyez ! Oyez ! a court is open for the 
administration of even-handed justice, to the poor and 



192 



Settlers on tJie Ohio 



the rich, to the guilty and the innocent, without respect 
of persons ; none to be punished without trial by their 
peers, and then in pursuance of the laws and evidence 
in the case." Then the Rev. Manasseh Cutler offered 
up a prayer in the presence of the governor and of the 

judges seated on their high 
benches of justice, the officers 
were called up and duly sworn, 
and the business of the day 
was begun. 

Thus was the first county 
organized, thus was the first 
court of justice opened, and 
thus was the American idea 
of civil government first in- 
troduced into the Old North- 
west. 

II. LOSANTIVILLE 

It was not long until other 
settlements were begun at 
widely separated points in the 
newly opened country. Judge 




" • Oyez ! Oyez 



John Cleves Symmes of New Jersey purchased a large 

tract of land fronting on the Ohio and lying between the 
Great Miami and Little Miami rivers. The tract 
was supposed to comprise a million acres, but 

when it was surveyed, it proved to contain not quite one 

third of that amount. 

A little more than five months after the arrival of the 



Losantiville 



193 




New England settlers at Marietta, several well-loaded 
barges, bearing sixty colonists from New Jersey, floated 
down the river. These people were well supplied with 
household necessities and farming tools, and carried with 
them fourteen large wagons and fifty-six horses. Late 
in September they landed near the mouth of the Little 
Miami, and at a point op- 
posite the place where the 
Licking pours its Kentucky 
waters into the Ohio they 
marked out a plan for a 
town. But there were In- 
dians in the neighborhood, 
and the settlers feared to 
remain. They therefore 
returned to their barges and 

rowed back to Maysville, a new settlement on the Ken- 
tucky side of the river. Before Christmas, however, 
many of them descended again to the Little Miami, a 
blockhouse was built, land was cleared, and the colony 
was established in its new home. 

''What name shall we give to our settlement.-^" asked 
the colonists. 

The leaders of the enterprise suggested calling it Cin- 
cinnati, in honor of the patriotic society that had been 
organized at the close of the Revolution. But John Filson, 
a schoolmaster who was surveying the town and laying off 
its streets, insisted that it should have a name that meant 
something. 

" Call it Losantiville," said he. 

CONQ. O.N.W. — 13 



194 Settlers on tJie Ohio 

'* But what does Losantiville mean ? " 

" It is a word made up from four languages. Trans- 
lating it backward, as we must often do in Latin, it means 
ville (French) the town, anti (Greek) opposite, os (Latin) 
the mouth, L (an English abbreviation) the Licking — the 
town opposite the mouth of the Licking." 

The ingenuity of the schoolmaster pleased the settlers, 
and the name Losantiville was adopted ; but when Gov- 
ernor St. Clair paid a visit to the place a year later, he 
declared that the town should be called Cincinnati. A 
paHsaded fort was soon built for its protection, and named 
Fort Washington ; and three hundred soldiers were sent to 
occupy it and overawe the Indian tribes who were already 
becoming alarmed at the rapid incoming of settlers. 



THE CONQUERING WHITE MAN 

I. BEYOND THE BORDER 

IT was several years before any important settlements 
were attempted west of the Great Miami. In the 
Wabash Country and the IlHnois Country, the Indians still 
roved unmolested, and but few white men ventured to 
invade the wild solitudes of the woods and prairies. 

The French people at the old posts of Vincennes and 
Kaskaskia were in a distressing condition. When George 
Rogers Clark invaded their country, they did all they 
could to help him. They gave him money and supplies, 
and in many cases impoverished themselves to aid the 
American cause. In return they received only certificates 
of indebtedness from the Virginia government — and most 
of these certificates were never paid. Later on, some law- 
less Americans, pretending to be officers from Virginia, 
visited their settlements and oppressed and robbed the 
simple people in a most shameful manner. To add to 
the sum of their misfortunes, there were heavy rains, and 
the rivers, swollen to unusual heights, swept away their 
crops ; early frosts destroyed their corn ; and the In- 
dians, who had formerly been their friends, were now their 
enemies. 

In their great distress to whom should these people 
turn if not to the Americans who claimed jurisdiction of 

»95 



196 TJic Conquering WJiite Man 

their country ? Father Gibault, our old acquaintance who 
had given such valuable aid to George Rogers Clark, ac- 
cordingly sent a memorial to Governor St. Clair, telling 
him of the sad condition of his people. " Loaded with 
misery, and groaning under the weight of misfortunes 
accumulated since the Virginia troops entered their coun- 
try," said he, *' the unhappy inhabitants throw themselves 
under the protection of your excellency." 

When the governor visited these distant settlements in 
the following spring, he found that all he had been told was 

true. To him the French settlers appeared to be 
1790 

the gentlest and kindest people he had ever met. 

But they were woefully ignorant, not one in fifty being able 

to read or write. Their modes of life and methods of labor 

had not changed for a century. They were honest and 

cheerful, constant in their attendance at church, and 

devoutly religious. But they had not kept pace with the 

progress of the world, and seemed to belong rather to the 

Middle Ages than to the new era of progress which was 

then dawning over the world. 

The territorial legislature, before which their case was 
finally laid, could not restore to them their former pros- 
perity, nor do much to reconcile them to the new order of 
things. Indeed, among the pushing Americans who were 
laying the foundations of a great new empire in the North- 
west, there were few who felt any sympathy for these slow- 
going people of an alien race. 

In the lake regions the British still held the ports of 
Detroit and Mackinac, and through them all the northern 
part of the Northwest Territory. This was done in direct 



Harmar 197 

violation of the treaty of peace signed in 1783; but the 
United States was not yet strong enough to assert its full 
rights. And so the fur trade of the Northwest remained 
in the hands of the English ; English agents continued to 
deal with the Indian tribes; and English influence long 
delayed the settlement of the lake country. It was believed, 
too, and not without reason, that English intrigues had 
much to do in inciting the Indians to make war ui)on the 
colonists in the Ohio Valley. 

II. HARMAR 

The Indians had never felt friendly toward the Ameri- 
cans. The coming of so many settlers into the southern 
part of their ancient hunting grounds filled them with 
alarm. The lawless deeds of white ruffians, who had 
entered their country for purposes of plunder, exasperated 
them beyond measure. 

Although the red men no longer crossed the Ohio to 
harry the Kentucky borders, yet bands of Kentuckians 
still made warlike raids into the Indian country, and took 
tenfold vengeance for the injuries they had suffered in 
former years. Even when treaties were made and signed, 
the whites were the first to break them. " The frontier 
settlers," said Washington, ''entertain the opinion that 
there is not the same crime (or indeed no crime at all) in 
killing an Indian as in killing a white man." 

Under these circumstances what could be more natural 
than that the tribes should refuse to abide by the treaties 
which their chiefs had made, and combine to resist the 



1 98 TJic Conquering White Man 

invaders ? Stung to madness, they demanded that the 
whites should withdraw to the south of the Ohio ; and a 
long and bloody war began. 

The pioneers who had ventured farthest into the wilder- 
ness were of course the first to suffer. Prowling bands 
of Indians infested the woods and made life outside of a 
stockade very insecure. Their modes of harassing the 
backwoodsmen seemed to vary with their varying moods. 
Sometimes they " contented themselves with seizing the 
horses or driving away the cattle of an emigrant, depriving 
the wretched family of the means of support, and reserv- 
ing further vengeance until a more suitable time. Some- 
times an Indian warrior would creep into a settlement 
by stealth and create general dismay by carrying away a 
child, or robbing a family of the wife and mother. Some- 
times a father was the victim, and the mother and children 
found themselves alone in the backwoods deprived of their 
protector and provider. Many a lonely cabin was attacked 
in the night and all the inmates pitilessly slain." 

In order to put an end to these barbarities, and oblige 
the savages to abide by the treaties they had made, it was 
decided to send out General Harmar with a body of troops 
to punish the restless tribes as severely as possible. 

On a day in early October General Harmar left Fort 
Washington at the head of nearly fifteen hundred men, 
intending to invade and overrun the country of 
the Miamis. The little army marched northward, 
following almost the same route that Celoron with his 
French soldiers had taken thirty-six years before. Within, 
a Httle over two weeks he reached the Miami villages near 



Wilkinson 1 99 

the old Maiimcc portage and not far from the present site 
of Fort Wayne. The villages were deserted ; but Harmar 
burned their three hundred huts and a large supply of 
corn which he found stored away. And then, like some 
would-be heroes of a later time, he reported to his superiors 
that he had dealt the enemy a terrible blow and had ac- 
complished all that he had set out to do. 

The wary savages, however, hung on the flanks of his 
army ; his men were entrapped in ambuscades ; and he was 
at last obliged to return to the Ohio, having suffered losses 
much greater than those he had inflicted upon the enemy. 
It was plain that Harmar was not the man to be intrusted 
with an enterprise so difificult and so important; nor would 
it be possible to subdue the Indians without some greater 
show of force and many new recruits to the army of the 
Northwest. 

III. WILKINSON 

While Governor St. Clair was waiting at Fort Wash- 
ington for the arrival of aid from the East, he sent out 
General Wilkinson with five hundred and twenty-three Ken- 
tucky horsemen to punish the tribes in the valley of the 
Wabash. These men were fearless backwoodsmen well- 
trained in Indian warfare, and the expedition was assured 
of success from the start. Fully armed and equipped, they 
rode in a northwesterly direction through the thickly 
wooded region which now comprises the central part of 
Indiana. 

Their progress at first was slow, but at the end of a 
week they reached the Wabash near the site of the present 



200 The Co]iqucri)ig White Man 

city of Logansport. There, in the midst of cornfields, they 
found an Indian town which they captured without resist- 
ance. " I encamped in the town that night, and the next 
morning I cut up the corn, burned the cabins, mounted the 
young warriors, squaws, and children, in the best manner 
in my power, and leaving two infirm squaws and a child, 
with a short talk, I commenced my march for the Kickapoo 
town in the prairie." 

In this manner, capturing, burning, and destroying, the 
Kentucky rangers swept down the Wabash Valley until 
they reached a point a little below the mouth of the Tippe- 
canoe near the present Lafayette. By that time the horses 
were tired out, and the men were murmuring because of 
being led so far into the enemy's country. Wilkinson 
thought it wisest, therefore, to return to the settlements. 

Just three weeks from the day of his departure from 
Fort Washington, he arrived with his rangers at the falls 
of the Ohio, having traveled four hundred and fifty miles 
and carried distress and terror into the heart of the Wabash 
country. President Washington was so much pleased with 
the results of this raid that he said, ''The enterprise, 
intrepidity, and good conduct of these Kentuckians are 
entitled to pecuHar commendation." 



IV. ST. CLAIR 

The next year St. Clair himself led an army into the 

country of the Miamis. His soldiers were for 

the most part raw recruits, " men purchased from 

prisons, wheelbarrows, and low resorts of the Eastern 



St. Clair 



20 1 



cities," who were eager to fight Indians at two dollars a 
month. The supplies were no better than the men ; the 
food for the army was insufficient ; the powder was of the 
poorest quality ; the horses and oxen were ill-fed and little 
able to endure the hardships of a campaign 
in a country where there were no roads. 

It was not until October that St. 
Clair's forces were ready to start. 
On the fourth of that month the 
march was begun from Fort Ham- 
ilton, a new stockade on the Great 
Miami about twenty-five miles from 
Cincinnati. There were barely two 
thousand men in the army, and only a 
small portion of these were experienced 
soldiers. After cutting their 
way through the forest for 
forty-two miles, they stopped 
to build another stockade which 
they named Fort Jefferson. 

The march was then resumed, 
the course of the army being 
directed toward the Miami towns 
near the head of the Maumee. 
ber, St. Clair found himself in the heart of the enemy's 
country, and went into camp on the banks of the Wabash 
not far from its source. The next morning the camp was 
attacked by a large force of Indians, and a dreadful battle 
ensued. The Indians were led by Little Turtle, a Miami 
chief of great discretion and bravery. Concealed among 




Eager to fight Indians at two 
dollars a month " 



On the third of Novem- 



202 The Conquering White Man 

the trees and high grass, they poured a constant and de- 
structive fire into the half-formed ranks of their foes. 

St. Chiir himself showed the greatest bravery. Although 
weak and suffering from continued ill health, he rode into 
the thickest of the fight, encouraging his men by his pres- 
ence. Several horses were killed under him, and although 
eight balls passed through his hat and clothes, he himself 
was unhurt. The slaughter was terrible. Four fifths of 
the officers and nearly one half of the men were killed or 
wounded. The ground was covered with bodies, and the 
little river was red with blood. What could St. Clair do 
but order a retreat "^ 

The retreat soon became a wild flight, and it so con- 
tinued until the survivors found themselves safe behind 
the stockade of Fort Jefferson. It is estimated that St. 
Clair had fourteen hundred men in the fight, and that of 
these scarcely fifty escaped unhurt. The carnage would 
have been even greater had not the Indians been so eager 
to secure plunder. After the conflict was over, they began 
in their savage way to avenge their wrongs still further by 
the most brutal treatment of the woimded and dying. 

"You make war against us to rob us of our land," they 
would say. ** Here, then, you may have as much land as 
you want!" And they would cram the eyes and throats 
of their wretched prisoners full of clay and sand. 

The blame for this terrible defeat was ascribed, and 
entirely without reason, to St. Clair. People accused him 
of cowardice, inefficiency, and even of treason. When, 
some years later, he asked Congress to compensate him 
for his services, and in his old age relieve him from want, 



Fallen TiDibcrs 203 

his petition was refused, and he was publicly reproached as 
a "pauper." Five months after the battle he was forced 
to resign his commission, and General Anthony Wayne 
was chosen to lead the campaign against the Indians. 



V. FALLEN TIMBERS 

It was not until nearly two years after St. Clair's defeat 
that General Wayne was prepared to make a decisive 
movement ao^ainst the enemy. On the 7th of 
October he reached a point about six miles north 
of Fort Jefferson, and there he determined to make his 
winter camp. The camp was carefully laid out and forti- 
fied, and named Fort Greenville. It occupied the site of 
a part of the present town of Greenville in Ohio. Here 
the little army remained several months, and the soldiers 
were drilled every day in the tactics of Indian fighting 
and in the use of the saber and the bayonet. 

The British at Detroit were much alarmed when they 
heard of Wayne's careful preparations ; for they imagined 
that he might be intending to march against them instead 
of against the Indians. In order to be prepared for 
such an emergency, the lieutenant governor of Canada 
marched out with three companies of British regulars, 
and built a fort at the lower end of the rapids of the 
Maumee, a short distance from the place where Maumee 
City now stands. The Indians had been encouraged by 
the British to stand their ground against the Americans, 
and the building of this fort gave them great hopes of aid 
from Canada. 



204 The Conquermg White Midi 

In the following August, Wayne marched into the heart 
of the Indian country. His army consisted of about twenty- 
six hundred men, all of whom had been well drilled 
1794 

and thoroughly prepared for the work that was 

to be done. He did not stop to capture defenseless vil- 
lages and destroy cornfields, but he sought out the Indian 
warriors "in their chosen stronghold. On the 19th he 
reached a place on the Maumee about four miles above 
the new British fort. On account of the great number of 
trees here that had been blown down by a hurricane, thus 
making a passage through the woods almost impossible, 
this place was called Fallen Timbers. Here, among the 
prostrate trees and matted brush and dense underwoods, 
the Indians were lying in wait. 

As a band of horsemen were floundering along through 
bushes and briers, a number of Indians arose from their 
hiding places and fired upon them. This was a signal for 
the beginning of the fight. The mounted soldiers were 
formed in position and ordered to move forward under 
cover of the river bank ; and the foot soldiers were 
directed to charge upon the lurking places of the savages, 
driving them out at the point of the bayonet, and follow- 
ing them up so closely that they would have no time to 
reload their guns. These orders were given quickly and 
were readily obeyed. The Indians were taken by sur- 
prise. They arose and fled ; and the Americans won a 
complete victory. 

Many of the fleeing Indians were pursued to the very 
walls of the British fort ; and it was with difficulty that 
Wayne could restrain his men from storming the post 



Greenville 



205 



itself. " As it was," says an early historian, " many of 
the Kentucky troops advanced within gunshot, and in- 
sulted the garrison with a select volley of oaths and epi- 
thets, which must have given the British commandant a 
high idea of backwoods gentility." 



VI. GREENVILLE 

After his victory at Fallen Timbers, Wayne, with his 
little army, marched slowly up the Maumee. His course 











■ <^ 

'• His course was marked by widespread devastation " 

was marked by widespread devastation. Scouting parties 
were sent out who destroyed the cornfields and villages for 
fifty miles on each side of the river. Never before had the 
Indians of the Northwest met with so signal a defeat, and 
never had they been punished with so great severity. 



2o6 The Conquering White Man 

Nearly a month was occupied in this progress of destruc- 
tion ; and it was late in September when the army reached 
the head of Maumee, where was the famous portage to 
the Wabash. There a strong stockade was built, and 
named Fort Wayne ; and there the general received delega- 
tions from the Indian tribes, and listened to their proposi- 
tions for peace. Some of the chiefs hesitated, still hoping 
for assistance from the British ; but the wisest among 
them were in favor of giving up the struggle. ** The 
Americans are now led by a chief who never stops," said 
Little Turtle ; " the night and the day are alike to him. 
And during all the time that he has been marching upon 
our villages, notwithstanding the watchfulness of our young 
men, we have never been able to surprise him. Think 
well of it. There is something that whispers to me that 
it will be prudent to listen to his offers of peace." 

At Greenville, the next year, the chiefs met in council 
with General Wayne, and a treaty of peace was made. 
The Indians gave up all claims to the lands east 
of the Cuyahoga and Tuscarawas rivers, and 
south of an irregular line drawn about halfway between 
Lake Erie and the Ohio to the head waters of the Wabash, 
and thence southwestwardly to the mouth of the Kentucky 
River.i They also made grants of large tracts of land in 
the Lake region. One of these was a strip six miles wide 
fronting on Lake Erie and the Detroit River and extend- 
ing from the Raisin River to Lake St. Clair. This, of 
course, included the post of Detroit, which was still occu- 
pied by the British. Another tract on the mainland north 

^ See map on page 210. 



Greenville 207 

of the Strait of Mackinac, together with the island of Bois 
Blanc, was deeded to the United States as '*an extra and 
voluntary gift of the Chippewa nation." Among other 
reservations ceded to the Americans were the lands occu- 
pied by the post at Mackinac, a tract of land six miles 
square at the mouth of the Chicago River, a large area at 
Fort Wayne and the Maumee portage, and several thou- 
sand acres in southern Indiana, which had been granted by 
Virginia to George Rogers Clark. In return for all these 
concessions and voluntary gifts, the Indians received pres- 
ents of goods valued at one hundred and twenty thousand 
dollars and the promise of an annual payment of ninety- 
five hundred dollars. It has been said, by way of compli- 
ment to General Wayne, that no chief or warrior who 
gave him the hand at Greenville ever again lifted the 
hatchet against the United States. 



THE UNITED STATES IN FULL POSSESSION 
I. THE SURRENDER OF THE LAKE POSTS 

THE war thus happily brought to an end had been in 
progress seven years. It had cost much treasure 
and many lives. More than fifteen hundred men, women, 
and children in Kentucky alone had been massacred or 
carried into captivity, and the number of sufferers on the 
north side was proportionately greater. The Indians had 
lost much more than the whites. The bravest of their 
warriors had been slain, their villages had been burned, 
their fields had been destroyed ; they were utterly broken 
and dispirited. For sixteen years there was no further up- 
rising among them, and there was peace throughout the 
Northwest. 

The British officers and the English traders at Detroit 
had all along hoped that the Indians would succeed in 
their struggle for the Northwest. Although not daring 
to take any active part in the war, they had constantly 
encouraged the savages to keep on fighting. Even after 
the great defeat at Fallen Timbers, the lieutenant governor 
of Upper Canada held a council with the chiefs on the 
Maumee, and tried to persuade them not to make peace. 

" All the country north of the Ohio belongs by right to 
you," he said, "and you must not give it up. I myself 
will see the great man at Quebec ; and we will tell the 

208 



The Surrender of tJie Lake Posts 209 

king, our father, about your grievances, and he will per- 
mit us to help you. In the spring our soldiers will come 
to your aid, and we will drive the Americans out of your 
hunting grounds." 

But the Indians had listened too often to such words as 
these. Year after year they had been deceived with false 
promises of help from the British. They turned away 
silently, and resolved to seek peace. 

The treaty which was made at Greenville was a death- 
blow to the hopes of the English at Detroit. They had 
hitherto interposed the Indians as a kind of wall between 
themselves and the Americans. By this means they had 
been able for thirteen years to hold unlawful possession of 
the lake posts and control the profitable fur trade of the 
Northwest. They now clearly saw that the time was near 
at hand when they must retire from American territory. 

That time came even sooner than they expected. 
Through the efforts of John Jay, our minister to Eng- 
land, a new treaty was made with Great Britain, in which 
it was stipulated that all posts and places in the United 
States that were then held by the British should be ab- 
solutely evacuated on the first day of June, 1796. 

1796 
Even after this there were some delays on the 

part of the officers in charge of these posts. But on 
the nth of July, the British having taken their leave, the 
stars and stripes were hoisted over the fort at Detroit and 
all the settlements in the lake regions became American. 
The entire Northwest was at last under the full control of the 
American people, and, with the exception of a small portion, 
was under the direct jurisdiction of the Federal government. 

CONCI. O.N.W. — 14 



2IO 



TJic United States in Full Possessioji 



II. ^-NEW CONNECTICUT" 

While the Indian war was in progress the state of 
Connecticut did not forget the strip of land which she 
still claimed on the southern shore of Lake Erie, and 
which is knowii in history as the Western Reserve. About 
the time that the unfortunate St. Clair was giv- 

mg up his com- 
mission, she made a free 
gift of a portion of it to 
such of her inhabitants 
as had suffered severely 
from the ravages of the 
British during the Revo- 
lution. 

This portion included 
a tract of five hundred thou- 
sand acres lying across the 
western end of the Reserve and 
bounded on the north by the 
lake shore ; and the land was to be divided among the 
sufferers in proportion to the amount of their losses. 
The tract was at first called "The Sufferers' Lands," but 
soon acquired the title by which that portion of Ohio is 
still known, "The Fire Lands." It was not until sixteen 
years later that these lands were divided into plots, and 
settlers began to occupy them. 

In 1795 the remaining part of the great Reserve was 
sold by order of the general assembly of Connecticut. No 
surveys or measurements were made, but it was purchased 




** Nciv Coiniccticiit " 211 

as a whole by ihirty-five kind si)ccu]at()rs, who agreed to 

pay for it the sum of twelve hundred thousand dollars. 

The money thus reeeived by the state was set apart as 

a perpetuid investment for the support of the common 

schools. It is interesting to remend^er that no small ])art 

of the present school fund of Connecticut was thus derived 

from the sale of lands in the Old Northwest, to which 

she had no better claim than that based upon an ancient 

charter given to her in ignorance by King Charles II. 

The thirty-five purchasers of the Western Reserve soon 

afterward sent out a company of fifty surveyors, who 

were to lay off the tract into townships each five miles 

square, and divide the townships into sections of a size 

convenient for the purposes of intending settlers. It 

was on the 4th of July when these surveyors with several 

others reached the mouth of Conneaut Creek, on 

1796 
the shore of Lake Erie. They decided to make 

this place their headquarters, and named it, in honor of the 

day, the ** Port of Independence." Speeches were made 

and toasts were offered, and the settlement of the Western 

Reserve was begun. 

Three weeks later, General Moses 'Cleaveland, the leader 

of the surveying company, went farther west and landed 

at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River. There, with a few 

others, he started a new settlement — a settlement which 

prospered and finally developed into the enterprising city 

known by his name.^ When the surveyors had com- 

1 The first newspaper published in this lake settlement was issued in 1830, 
and was to be called the "Cleaveland Advertiser." When the first number 
was being made up, the editor discovered that the title was a little too long for 



212 TJie United States in Full Possession 

pleted their work, they found that the purchasers of the 
Reserve were entitled, not to four milHons of acres, as 
they had supposed, but to something less than three mil- 
lions. For all political purposes this tract was still under 
the jurisdiction of Connecticut, although some of the pur- 
chasers supposed that they were now independent of any 
state and might set up a separate government of their 
own. They proposed to establish here the " State of 
New Connecticut," to be governed by the company, much 
in the same manner as the colony of Virginia had been 
governed by a company in England. But Congress, as 
well as the state of Connecticut, had something to say 
about this; and so, in 1800, the latter made a formal 
transfer to the Federal government of all jurisdiction 
whatsoever over the territory in question. 

After seventeen years of waiting the United States was 
at last in complete possession of the Northwest. 

the page. He therefore omitted the letter " a " in the first syllable of the 
name, and " Cleaveland " became " Cleveland." The people were pleased 
with the new spelling, and the abbreviated form was soon generally adopted. 



THI<: TERRITORY OF INDIANA 
I. THE SCATTERED SETTLEMENTS 

AFTER the close of the long Indian war great numbers 
of settlers began to pour into the Ohio Valley. These 
stopped at various places east of the present state of Indi- 
ana ; for there was plenty of land for all who came, and 
but very few cared to provoke the Indians by crossing 
the line which marked the limits of the white man's pos- 
sessions. Down the Ohio again came an endless pro- 
cession of boats loaded with settlers and their belongings. 
In the first year after the treaty more than a 
thousand vessels passed Marietta. The pioneer 
who came into the wilderness to hew out a home for his 
family could now buy the land direct from the government 
without becoming the victim of land speculators. The 
"siren song of peace and agriculture" was heard even 
in the depths of the forest. Fear had fled from the land, 
and to all classes of people there was safety. What 
wonder if the country was soon dotted with clearings and 
farmhouses and villages ? 

In the same year that Connecticut gave up her pre- 
tensions to the Western Reserve, Congress divided the 
Northwest Territory into two parts, and placed 
each under a separate government. The bound- 
ary line between these two divisions was in part the same 
as that which had been drawn between the Indians' 

213 



214 



TJic Territory of Indiana 



country and the country that had been ceded to the 
whites by the treaty at Greenville. It extended from 
the mouth of the Kentucky River straight to Fort Recov- 
ery, near the source of the 
Wabash, and thence due north 
through Michigan. The 
division east of this line 
retained the old name, "The 
Territory Northwest of the 
River Ohio." The other 
division, being the country 
of the Indians, was called 
" Indiana Territory." The 
capital of the eastern divi- 
sion was Chillicothe, on the 
Scioto River, and General 
St. Clair remained its governor. 
The capital of Indiana Territory 
was Vincennes, and its govern- 
ment was placed in the hands of 
William Henry Harrison. 

In the vast territory of Indiana, 

which included about four fifths 

of the entire Northwest, there 

were at the beginning of the nineteenth century scarcely 

a dozen settlements. The chief of these were at the 

falls of the Ohio on the lands granted to George 
1801 

Rogers Clark, — at Vincennes on the Wabash, 

and at Cahokia and Kaskaskia on the Mississippi. In 

none of these were there more than a thousand people. 




The boundary line 



Tlic Scattcnd ScttUtnoits 



215 



There were military posts at Fort Wayne, at Fort Massac 
on the Ohio, and at Mackinac; and a tew white famihes 
were settled at Green Bay and two or three other points. 

On the north side of the Chicago 
River, not far from the 
there was a single dwellin 
a kind of blockhouse con- 
taining a storeroom and 
rooms for eating an( 
sleeping. Here live( 
alone a French trader 
whose name was Le 
Mai. The house itself 
had been built twenty 
years before by an- 
other trader, Jean 
Baptiste Point de 
Saible, and it is sup- 
posed to have stood 
quite near the spot 
where Father Mar- 
quette passed his last 
winter more than a 
century earlier. 

De Saible was a 
French mulatto who had lived a long time among the 
Indians, and gained their complete confidence. His house 
soon became a great trading center for the tribes west 
of the lake, and especially for the Pottawattomies. There 
they bartered the furs of beavers and minks, and the skins 




His house soon became a great trading 
center " 



2i6 Tlie Territory of Indiana 

of buffaloes and bears for guns and knives, blankets and 
rum ; and soon Monsieur de Saible was able to retire from 
business with a handsome fortune. He was succeeded by 
Le Mai in 1796 ; and in the year of which we are speaking 
the lonely house on the bank of the Chicago River (Garlic 
Creek) was a favorite resort for the red hunters of 

I8OI . . ^ , , , . . c ^ 

the prairie. Such was the beginning or the metrop- 
olis of the Northwest, which before the end of the century 
then beginning would number its inhabitants by the million. 
The few settlements that have been mentioned were 
separated by hundreds of miles of unexplored wilderness. 
There were no roads and no means of conveyance from 
place to place. There were no travelers except hunters 
and traders ; and the Indians who lived there were by no 
means friendly to trespassers who crossed the border line 
of their country. When General Harrison was appointed 
governor of this wild and unsettled region, it became one 
of his chief duties to make treaties with the various sav- 
age tribes, to keep them at peace with the government and 
with each other, and if possible to secure from them still 
further grants of lands in the territory which they had 
reserved. Within the next five or six years he was able 
to purchase from them for the United States several large 
tracts in the most fertile parts of the Wabash and Ohio 
valleys. At a treaty held at Fort Wayne in 1803, the 
Miamis, Shawnees, and other tribes sold to the govern- 
ment more than two million acres, receiving therefor the 
pitiable sum of four thousand dollars. Other treaties 
followed, and several other similar bargains were made. 
The United States was never known to pay the Indians 



TccmnscJi 21/ 

too much for their hinds, neither were the agents who 
were sent out to deal with them ever known to favor them 
with undue kinchiess, excei)t as a means of securing some 
sort of advantage over them. 



II. TECUMSEH 

Among the Shawnees there was at that time a warrior 
of great influence and ability whose name was Tecumseh. 
When he was a mere child his father had been killed in 
battle with the white invaders of his country ; and through- 
out his life he had brooded upon the wrongs which his 
people had been obliged to endure. As a young man he 
had been one of the most daring among those who had 
defeated Harmar and St. Clair; and even the disaster at 
Fallen Timbers did not wholly dishearten him. He was 
thirty-five years old when the great land sale occurred at 
Fort Wayne. He still hoped that at some time and in some 
way his nation might recover their lost hunting grounds. 
When he saw the limits of the Indian country growing 
smaller and smaller with each successive treaty with the 
white men, and realized that the red men would soon be 
deprived of all that they owned, he made up his mind to 
give his life, if need be, for the defense of his people. 

His first plan was to unite all the tribes of the North- 
west in a great league similar to that which had been 
formed by Pontiac forty years before. He was not a 
chief, nor had he any voice in the councils of the Shaw- 
nees ; but his fine common sense and his known courage 
had gained for him great influence, both in his own tribe 



2i8 The Territory of Indiana 

and among others. His brother, Ellskevatawa, commonly 
known as the " Prophet," greatly aided him in all his 
plans. 

Tecumseh declared that bribes and bad whisky had 
been used to induce the chiefs to sell the lands of the 
tribes. He also claimed that since the lands were really 
the property of the Indian nation as a whole, the chiefs 
of no particular tribe could sell or dispose of any part of 
it without the general consent. That this plea was a 
just one we can hardly deny ; but when Tecumseh made 
his appeal to Governor Harrison, he was told that the 
question must be decided by the President. ** I hope, 
then," said Tecumseh, "that the Great Spirit will put 
sense enough into the President's head to induce him to 
decide aright and direct you to give up this land. It is 
true he is so far off that he will not be injured by the 
war. He may sit still in his town and drink his wine, 
while you and I will have to fight it out." 

The decision of the President, as might have been 
foreseen, was not in favor of Tecumseh's claims. The 
United States had bought the lands ; and, no matter of 
whom it had bought them, or at what price, it would 
continue to hold them. Tecumseh was now more than 
ever intent upon war. With his brother he visited the 
tribes in the South, as well as those in the Northwest, and 
tried to persuade them to join his confederacy. Tecumseh 
was untiring in his efforts, and went everywhere. To an 
American officer whom he met among the Iroquois in 
1809, he said that he "had visited the Florida Indians, 
and Indians so far north that snow covered the ground 



Tecum sell 



219 



in midsummer." Near the mouth of the Ti])])ecan()c River, 
just abo\'e the present city of Lafayette, the Prophet had 
gathered a great following of discontented warriors from 
many tribes ; and to influence them by an appeal to their 
superstitions, he had established 
a kind of religious order, with 
mysterious ceremonies and pre- 
tended communings with the 
spirit world. 

At length, by invitation of 
Governor Harrison, Tecumseh 
made a visit to Vincennes. He 
had with him seventy-five war- 
riors fully armed, and he held 
himself like a conqueror 
rather than suppliant. 
The governor received him at his 
own house courteously, and asked 
him to be seated with him in the 
shade of the veranda. The red 
man haughtily refused, saying, .^7 
" Houses were built for you to jl 
hold councils in, but Indians hold 
theirs in the open air." 

Governor Harrison then went 
out and talked with the warrior 

in the open common before his house. Tecumseh con- 
ducted himself gravely after the Indian manner, and de- 
livered an eloquent speech in which he recited the many 
wrongs that his people had suffered at the hands of the 



1810 







He held himself like 
a conqueror" 



220 TJie Tei'ritory of Indiana 

Americans. At the close of his speech an officer invited 
him to take a seat by the side of his ** father, the governor." 
He shook his head, and sat down on the ground, saying : 
''The sun is my father and the earth is my mother. I will 
repose on her bosom." For nearly two weeks the governor 
and the warrior were in almost daily consultation, and 
many speeches were made by each. 

''Brother," said Tecumseh, "this land that was sold, 
was sold only by a few. If the land is not restored to us, 
you will see, when we return to our homes, how it will be 
settled. Brother, I wish you would take pity on the red 
people and do what I have requested." 
• But the conference closed without anything being accom- 
plished. Everything was referred to '' the great father at 
Washington." The governor assured his savage visitor 
that " the moon would sooner fall to the ground than the 
President would suffer his people to be murdered with im- 
punity, and that he would put petticoats on his warriors 
sooner than give up a country which he had fairly bought 
from its true owners." 

Disappointed, but not down-hearted, Tecumseh returned 
haughtily to his people. He had pondered so long on the 
misfortunes of his race that his mind was full of bitterness 
toward all Americans, and he hated Governor Harrison 
beyond all measure. In a few days, with twenty trusted 
warriors, he started again for the South, determined to 
carry out his plan of uniting all the tribes in one wide- 
spread conspiracy. 

When the territorial legislature met at Vincennes in the 
following autumn, Governor Harrison urged the necessity 



Tippecanoe 221 

of procuring still more kinds from the Indians. "The 
eastern settlements," he said, "are separated from the 

western by a considerable extent of Indian lands, 

^ 1810 

and the most fertile tracts that are within our ter- 
ritorial bounds are still their property. Almost entirely 
divested of the game from which they had drawn their 
subsistence, it has become of little use to them ; and it 
was the intention of the government to substitute, for the 
scanty supplies which the chase affords, the more certain 
support which is derived from agriculture. By the con- 
siderate and sensible among them, this plan is considered 
as the only one that will save them from utter extirpation. 
But a most formidable opposition has been raised to it by 
the warriors, who will never agree to abandon their old 
habits until driven to it by necessity. As long as a deer 
is to be found in their forests, they will continue to hunt. 
Are, then, those extinguishments of Indian title, which are 
at once so beneficial to the Indian, the territory, and the 
United States, to be suspended on account of the intrigues 
of a few individuals } Is one of the fairest portions of the 
globe to remain in a state of nature, the haunt of a few 
wretched savages, when it seems destined by the Creator 
to give support to a large population, and to be the seat of 
civilization, of science, and true religion } " 



III. TIPPECANOE 

Through the next spring and summer fear and uneasi- 
ness prevailed all along the border. The Indians had 
begun in various ways to annoy the settlers, stealing 



222 



The Territory of Ijidiana 



horses, killing cattle, and threatening to destroy the grow- 
ing crops. Life was unsafe. The backwoods farmer was 
obliged to carry his rifle with him even when 
plowing his fields. Every lonely cabin became a 
kind of fortified outpost, with loopholes in the walls, and 



1811 




" Every lonely cabin became a fortified post " 

'^ the doors barred and guarded against 
surprise. Straggling savages prowled 
around the settlements, intent on mischief ; 
and it was known that bands of warriors were collect- 
ing at the Prophet's town on the Tippecanoe with the 
avowed purpose of making trouble. It seemed as if the 
former dreadful days of terror and blood and midnight 
forays were about to come again. It was plain to every 
one that another Indian war was at hand, and the people 



Tippecanoe 223 

of the territory declared that if the government would 

not help them, they would take matters into their own 

hands. 

Governor Harrison was convinced that the time for 

decisive action had come. In the last week of September, 

therefore, he set out from Vincennes with a 

1811 
strong force of militia and regulars, and marched 

northward through the Wabash bottoms toward the Indian 
rendezvous at Tippecanoe. At the end of a week the 
army reached a point on the eastern bank of the river, 
where, according to Indian tradition, a bloody battle had 
once been fought between the Iroquois and the Illinois. 
This place was called by the French settlers " Battaille 
des Illinois," and is now occupied by the flourishing city 
of Terre Haute. Here an encampment was made, and 
the army remained for three weeks engaged in building a 
fort which the soldiers called Fort Harrison. Provisions 
were scarce, and the supplies that should have followed 
were long delayed ; and so it was not until the last day of 
October that the governor was able to resume the march. 
On the 6th of November he reached the mouth of the 
Tippecanoe and saw the Indian village in plain view, about 
a mile and a half distant. The soldiers were anxious to 
make an immediate attack, but Governor Harrison, wish- 
ing to avoid bloodshed if possible, sent forward a messen- 
ger to invite the Prophet to a conference. The messenger 
made his way to the outskirts of the village, but the In- 
dians whom he met refused to speak with him, and he was 
obliged to return without seeing the prophet or any of the 
leading warriors. 



224 ^^^(^ Territory of Indiana 

A deputation of three Indians came out from the town 
soon afterward, and asked the governor why he had thus 
brought an army out against them. They said that their 
people desired to keep the peace, and they begged that 
he would wait until the next day, when their chiefs would 
meet him in council and learn what he wished them to 
do. The governor willingly agreed to this, saying that 
his army would encamp near by for the night, and that 
no hostilities should be committed. 

A suitable place was therefore found, and the soldiers 
settled themselves for the night, being much dissatisfied 
because there was no immediate prospect of fighting. 
They slept on their arms, their guns being loaded and 
their bayonets fixed. Strong guards were placed on duty, 
and every precaution was taken to prevent surprise. 

In the meanwhile, the Prophet was busy stirring up 
his followers to the fighting point and urging them to 
make a bold stroke in defense of their new religion and 
their country. The Great Spirit, he said, was on their 
side and would give them the victory. No white soldiers 
could withstand them, but would fall before them as the 
wheat before the sickle. In the darkness of the night, 
he moved silently from wigwam to wigwam, arousing his 
warriors and instructing each one in the part he was to 
take ; and not a sound of all that was going on reached 
the ears of the sentinels before the American camp. 

At about two hours before sunrise the camp was at- 
tacked by a great horde of savages, so suddenly that they 
were within the lines before many of the men could get 
out of the tents. The morning was dark and cloudy, and 



Tippecanoe 225 

the Indians being concealed in the gloom, had much the 
advantage of the white men just roused from their sleep 
and plainly visible in the light of the glowing camp fires. 
The struggle which followed was a terrible one, and for 
a time the army was almost surrounded. Ikit the officers 
were experienced Indian fighters, and the men bravely 
held their ground. Above the din and roar of battle 
the voice of the Prophet could be heard, urging his 
warriors onward and promising them a sure victory and 
great rewards. 

Daylight soon came and revealed a scene of blood and 
slaughter seldom equaled in savage warfare. Governor 
Harrison was in the thickest of the fight ; his hat was 
pierced by a bullet ; his officers were shot down by his 
side; but he himself escaped injury. In the gray dawn 
he ordered a charge to be made upon the savages. The 
onslaught was most furious. The Indians, driven at the 
point of the bayonet, turned and fled ; many of them 
were killed, and the rest hid themselves in a swamp where 
they could not be followed. 

The battle had been a short one, but the loss on both 
sides was great. Of the Americans, thirty-seven were 
killed and one hundred and fifty-one wounded, several of 
whom afterward died of their injuries. The number of 
Indians slain will never be known, as many are supposed 
to have been carried away by their comrades. 

On the following day a company of mounted riflemen 
rode into the town, the Prophet's famous capital. The 
only Indian found there was a chief who had broken his 
leg. All the rest had fled in a great panic, leaving behind 

CONQ. O.N.W. — 15 



226 TJie Territory of hidiana 

them their household utensils, and even some of their 
arms. A large quantity of corn was found, and many 
hogs and fowls ; and these were gladly seized upon by the 
troops. 

Governor Harrison, believing that this severe defeat of 
the Indians would oblige them to seek peace, set out as 
soon as possible on his return march. The army reached 
Fort Harrison just one week after the battle, and from 
that point the wounded were sent forward in boats. On 
the 1 8th of November, the governor with a large portion 
of his army arrived at Vincennes, where he received the 
thanks and congratulations of the territorial legislature. 

Had the Indians been led by the wiser and more pru- 
dent Tecumseh instead of by the visionary Prophet, the 
contest would doubtless have been begun in another way, 
and the Americans might not have won the victory so 
easily. But Tecumseh was still absent in the South, try- 
ing to persuade the Chickasaws and the Cherokees to aid 
his conspiracy. When he heard of the defeat at Tippe- 
canoe, he hastened home ; but he arrived too late to 
retrieve his fallen fortunes. He reproached his brother 
for disobeying his orders, which were to keep peace with 
the white men until his return. It is said that when the 
Prophet tried to excuse himself, the angry warrior seized 
him by the hair and shook him as a dog shakes a raccoon. 

From that time the Prophet had no further influence. 
Many of the chiefs hastened to make their peace with 
Governor Harrison, and to gain further favor promised 
to give the deceiver the punishment that he deserved. 
They even went so far as to seek him out and threaten 



Tippccaiioc 



227 



to kill him. "You have hcd to us," said they, abusing 
him. "You told us that the white people were crazy 
and could do nothing ; but we found them to be in their 
right senses, and able to fight like the bad spirit him- 



se 



If." But they never dcHvcred him to Governor Harri- 




" 'You have lied to us.' said they " 

son ; and he was suffered to remain among them, despised 
and disregarded until the day of his death. 

As for Tecumseh, he gave up his plan of an Indian 
confederacy; and as the War of 1812 was then in prog- 
ress, he went to Canada and allied himself with the Eng- 
lish, and became an officer in the king's army. In the 
battle that was fought on the River Thames, he 
was the most striking figure. Even before the be- 
ginning of the fight he foresaw that the English must be de- 
feated. This meant to him the end of all hope, and he made 



1813 



228 The Territory of Lidiana 

up his mind not to leave the field of battle alive. He took 
off the British uniform which had been given him, and put 
on the war dress of an Indian brave. Then, with a wild 
war whoop, he dashed into the thickest of the fight, where 
he soon found the death which he desired. 



IV. A HARBINGER OF PROSPERITY 

At the very time that Governor Harrison was marching 

against the Prophet at Tippecanoe, the first steamboat on 

the Ohio River was laiinched at Pittsburg. The name of 

the vessel was the Orleans, and as it floated down 
1811 

the river belching smoke from its tall funnel, the 

settlers along the banks were filled with wonder and con- 
sternation. There were no newspapers in that region, and 
news of every kind traveled but slowly. Not many of 
the people had ever heard of a steamboat, and the strange 
craft was regarded as some monster that might carry death 
and devastation in its track. At one place it was thought 
to be the British army, and the people fled in terror to the 
hills until it was safely past. At other places it was be- 
lieved to be a comet that had fallen into the river and was 
floating down to the sea. 

The coming of that strange craft, however, was the har- 
binger of greater prosperity in the Northwest. Trade with 
New Orleans and with the new towns on the Ohio and 
Mississippi was quickened and increased. Other steam- 
boats came, and there were demands for grain and wool and 
furs and pork to be shipped to the markets down the river. 
Commerce had begun. People in the Atlantic states were 



A Harbinger of Prosperity 229 

told about the possibilities and resources of the Northwest, 
and the tide of immigration soon increased. 

When finally the war with luigland ended, and the In- 
dians now no longer encouraged by British intrigue were 
ready to give up their lands and retire to other homes be- 
yond the Mississippi, a new era dawned upon the country. 
Ohio had already been admitted into the sisterhood of 
states. In 18 16, Indiana came into the Union with bound- 
aries essentially as they are to-day ; and two years later 
Illinois was admitted. ]^ut it was not until icS37 that 
Michigan was allowed to become a state; and Wisconsin 
remained a territory still eleven years longer. 



SUBDUERS OF THE WILDERNESS 

I. THE PIONEERS 

HOW very slowly everything moved in those days ! 
From the time the first settlement was made at Mari- 
etta, more than half a century elapsed before the wilder- 




" Subduers of the wilderness " 

ness was entirely subdued and the whole land had become 
a land of homes. 

There were no railroads, no telegraphs, no means of 
rapid travel. Post offices were few and far between ; the 
mails were carried on horseback or in slow-going boats ; the 



The ri oncers 231 

rates of postaL;e were very hii^h. A newspaper was rarely 
seen. It reciiiired a month lor news to {)ass from Indiana 
to the Atlantic states. To the people living in Massachu- 
setts, or Virginia, or the Carolinas, the '' Ohio Country," as 
it was still called, was a far-distant region — farther than 
the I'hilippine Islands seem to us now, and much more 
difficult to reach. All that they knew about the great 
Northwest they had learned from hearsay, or from letters 
written by friends or neighbors who had gone there in the 
hope of bettering their fortunes. Sometimes, but very 
rarely, a traveler would return from "the Ohio" or *' the 
Indiana," bringing wonderful accounts of that region. He 
became the admired hero of a dozen neighborhoods ; men 
would ride miles to see and talk with him ; and his stories 
with many additions and variations would be carried from 
mouth to mouth and repeated in a hundred humble homes. 
Thereupon the "western fever" would begin to rage, and 
first one household and then another would be seized with 
an intense desire to emigrate to the new settlements. But 
thousands who would have been glad to go were kept back 
on account of the difficulties and dangers that lay in the 
way. 

Emigrants from New England and New York found that 
the easiest way of reaching the Northwest was by going 
up the Mohawk valley and along the shores of the lakes; 
and, therefore, all the northern portions of Ohio and Indi- 
ana, and much the greater part of Michigan, were settled 
by pioneers from the Eastern and Middle states. These 
people were not wealthy ; not all were blessed with even 
the common necessaries of life. But they had come from 



232 Subducrs of tJic Wilderness 

a land of schools, and they brought into the wilderness a 
sincere love of knowledge and a little of that air of refine- 
ment which they had been accustomed to in their earlier 
homes. They came expecting to meet with many hard- 
ships, and yet resolved to subdue the wilderness and lay 
the foundations of prosperity for those who should follow 
them. They were not the sort of people that fail. 

Emigrants from the South — from Kentucky and Vir- 
ginia and the Carolinas — found plenty of vacant land in 
the rolling country adjoining the river, and in the densely 
wooded plains of southern Ohio and Indiana. Some of 
them ventured as far as to the prairie lands of Illinois; but 
instead of opening farms where the ground was cleared 
and ready for cultivation, they made their homes in the 
woodlands, where they cleared little patches of ground and 
were content with raising enough corn and fruit to keep 
their families from starving. Nearly all of these Southern 
pioneers were very, very poor. They had come from a 
land where slavery had made labor disgraceful. They had 
been attracted to the Northwest because of the cheapness 
of the land and the abundance of game. The men would 
rather hunt in the wild woods than cut down trees and 
make themselves farms and comfortable homes. They 
were ready to subdue the wilderness, but with guns instead 
of axes. They were satisfied with the barest comforts — 
were indolent, easy-going, and much given to putting 
things off till to-morrow. They were uncouth in dress, 
rough in manners, and inclined to be boastful. And yet 
they were honest in their dealings, kind-hearted, and gen- 
erous. The latchstrings of their cabins were always out 



The Pioficcrs 233 

for the entertainment of neighbors and strangers alike. 
They were for the most part unedueated. Many could 
neither read nor write ; and they distrusted book learning 
as something that made its possessor unfit for the duties of 
life. They needed only to be awakened and brought into 
contact with the currents of modern enterprise. The time 
was coming when they, too, would have a hand in the 
building of commonwealths and the founding of worthy 
institutions. 

But not all of those who came from the South were of 
this class of unenterprising squatters. Many men of intel- 
ligence and high respectability left their old homes in 
Carolina, or Virginia, or Kentucky, and made trial of new 
fortunes in various parts of the Northwest. Some came 
to assist in founding religious communities where all their 
neighbors would be of the same faith. Some came because 
their consciences were opposed to slavery, and they could 
not bear the thought of bringing up their children in the 
midst of it. Many came because no other place offered so 
many advantages to poor men who wished to make homes 
for their families. 

Nor, on the other hand, were all those who came from 
the East men of enterprise and moral uprightness. Some 
were vagabonds hiding from justice. Some were specu- 
lators and schemers, intent upon making quick and easy 
fortunes whether by chance or fraud. Some were as in- 
dolent, as rude, as uncouth, as the most shiftless pioneers 
from the pine barrens of the South. 

How very diverse, then, in character and manners, in 
enterprise and expectations, were the pioneers who sub- 



234 Siibducrs of tJic Wilderness 

dued the wilderness of the Old Northwest! But — when 
all had united in one common cause, when the weak were 
uplifted by the strong, when the bad were improved by 
contact with the good, when intelligence triumphed over 
ignorance — what a race of giants were they ! 



II. A TRUE HERO 

John Stirling was a typical pioneer of the class who may 
be called the Makers of the Northwest. He was one of 
those who came from the South for conscience' sake : he 
could not bear to see human beings in bondage ; he wanted 
to bring up his children in a land dedicated to freedom. 
He could trace his ancestry for four centuries through a 
long line of English gentry, and every one of his forefathers 
had been a champion of liberty. The story of his life in 
the Northwest is but the story of a thousand others as 
brave, as self-sacrificing, as ingenious, as industrious 
as he. 

In a single small wagon drawn by two horses, John 
Stirling brought his family and his household goods across 
the mountains by way of Cumberland Gap and through the 
half-settled districts of Kentucky. He crossed the Ohio 
near the mouth of the Great Miami, and then made his 
way northwestwardly into the almost unbroken wilderness, 
looking for a suitable place to make his home. The roads 
for hundreds of miles were little better than wood paths ; 
over a part of the course he was obliged to cut his own 
way among fallen trees and through thick underwoods. 
The journey from beginning to end occupied nearly six 



A True Hi 



'10 



235 



weeks, and yet John Stirling and his family were thankful 
that it had been so short. 

Having selected the spot for his farm, the pioneer's next 
care was to become its possessor. He bought it from the 
government at a dollar and a quarter an acre, and when 
this was paid he had scarcely a cent left. But of what use 
would money be in a place where there was nothing to buy } 

With the help of his two boys 
he felled trees and cleared a 
small space for the homestead. 
He cut the logs into pro])cr 
lengths and with them built 
the walls of a rude cabin. He 
hewed rough puncheons for the 
floor, rived long boards for the 
roof, made a great fireplace of 
flat stones, built a chimney of 
sticks and clay, and within five 
days had finished a habitation 
that was to be the shelter and 
home of the family for twice 
that many years. Not a nail 
nor a brick was used in the construction of that house, — 
nails and bricks were luxuries which the onward march 
of civilization would by and by bring into that region,— 
but the time for such luxuries was not yet. 

For weeks, during that first spring in the forest, the 
doorway of the cabin was closed simply by hanging a bed- 
quilt loosely from the top, like a kind of curtain. The 
wolves howled around the cabin at night ; the pioneer was 




The wolves howled around the 
cabin " 



236 S lib duel's of the Wilderness 

not disturbed by such sounds — the hunger wolf was more 
to be dreaded than the gray beast that skulked in the 
thickets. Until his first small crop of corn had ripened, he 
was by no means sure of food for the winter. He carried 
his grain fifteen miles to mill and waited for it to be ground 
in order not to disappoint the expectant family, hungry for 
bread and eagerly waiting for the grist of meal. 

The first twelve months were months of sore trial ; but 
the end of the year found John StirHng firmly established 
in his new home, and beyond the reach of want. Even 
in the very darkest moments, he saw in imagination the 
wilderness giving place to fields of yellow grain and 
orchards of overladen trees ; and these thoughts g^ive him 
fresh courage and strength for further conquests. 

Little by little the great trees and the thick underwoods 
gave way before the three sharp axes of the Stirlings. 
Every year new deadenings were made in the woods, and 
broader patches of corn and wheat and flax were planted 
in the openings. Herds and flocks increased and flourished 
in the woodland pastures, without expense and without 
special care. And sooner than he had dared hope, the 
pioneer began to see the realization of his dreams. 

The comforts of civilized life, however, were long want- 
ing. For several years all the clothing of the family was 
homespun : tow-cloth and linen from flax raised on the 
farm ; jeans and linsey-woolsey, of flax threads interwoven 
with wool from the farmer's own sheep. Nobody was idle. 
Wife and daughters were busy from daylight till dark, 
caring for the cows and the poultry, digging in the garden, 
carding the wool, turning the spinning wheel, mending 



A True Hero 237 

garments, knitting, sewing, churning ; and, if need be, 
they were neither afraid nor ashamed to do a day's work 
in the field — it was all a part of the family economy. 

The farmer himself was a jack-at-all-trades, and good 
at more than one. He manufactured his own chairs and 
tables ; he tanned the hides of his beeves into fairly good 
leather; he made his children's shoes and hats; he wove 
jeans and tow-cloth for his own clothing and that of the 
boys; he knew something about coopering and harness 
making; he could make a spinning wheel or a turning 
lathe ; he repaired the clocks as well as the wagons of 
his less skillful neighbors, and even built barns and houses 
for them ; and in the long winter evenings, by the light of 
the fire in the broad chimney, he tied brooms, and taught 
his boys and girls how to read and write. 

When, in time, the farm produced more grain than the 
family and the livestock needed for food, Mr. Stirling began 
to think how he might dispose of the surplus. During the 
first few years the nearest market was on the Ohio, more 
than fifty miles distant; but that was only a trifle of three 
days' journey, and the entire trip, going and coming, could 
be made in a week. Over roads of the worst sort, a few 
bushels of wheat, and perhaps some vegetables or a pail 
of butter, were hauled to that distant market. It was 
rather a holiday than anything more serious ; for the 
farmers of the neighborhood usually went together in 
caravan style, camping by the roadside at night, and 
withal making a right merry time of it. The produce was 
bartered for salt and such other necessary things as could 
not be made at home. Now and then a few yards of 



238 Subdncrs of the Wilderness 

calico or some ribbons or some bits of queensware were 
carried home to rejoice the good wife and the grown-up 
daughters. There was no hardship in all this. The long 
journey once or twice a year relieved the monotony of 
pioneer life — the markets would certainly be nearer some 
time. 

And little by little the markets did come nearer; and 
there were not only larger crops, but the price of grain was 
higher, and the farmer began to know, by actually seeing 
it, the color and shape of money. One comfort after an- 
other came to lighten the labors of the household. The 
buzz of the steam sawmill, and after a while the whistle of 
the locomotive, became famiUar sounds. The boys and 
girls gradually laid aside their homespun and put on, 
especially on Sundays, clothing made of " boughten 
goods " ; and the farmer himself indulged now and then 
in some inexpensive luxury which he had hitherto de- 
nied himself. One after another he put aside his weaving 
and tanning and shoemaking and carpentering ; and finally 
he had nothing to do but give his whole attention to his 
farm and stock. A neat "frame house" was built nearer 
the roadside, and the old log cabin, the scene of many joys 
as well as sorrows, was deserted. Comfort and plenty 
abounded. The blessings of civilization, following in the 
wake of honest labor, had come at last. 

But after his life of privation and toil, John Stirling was 
not the man that he might have been had another lot been 
his. His health had been enfeebled by exposure in the 
woods and fever-breeding marshes ; his face had been 
bronzed by the scorching heat of many summers, and 



A True Ilcro 239 

wrinkled by the cold of as many winters ; his head had 
been whitened by sad experiences, and his hand had lost 
its former strength and cunning. Besides all this, the 
habits of the backwoodsman clung to him ; he was a 
stranger to the refinements of life ; his language was as 
full of inaccuracies as his manners were uncouth ; he could 
ill adapt himself to the changed order of things which the 
schools, the railroads, and the development of the natural 
wealth of the country had brought about. 

Yet as a compensation for all his labors and losses, the 
rugged pioneer of the Old Northwest had this thought to 
console him : he was one of ten thousand veterans who 
had made conquest of a mighty empire, developed its re- 
sources, and bequeathed it as a rich heritage to coming 
generations. He was one of the snbduers of tJie luildeniess. 
No hero of history, no warrior patriot, ever served his 
country better, or earned laurels more nobly. The world 
may forget what he suffered and what he accomplished, 
but his monument shall remain as long as our country 
endures. What is his monument } It is the Old North- 
west itself, now the center of the republic, and the crown- 
ing factor of our country's greatness. 



THE LAST STRUGGLE 
I. THE SACS 

IN the early part of the eighteenth century there was Hv- 
ing in Wisconsin a powerful tribe of Indians known as 
the Outagami, or Fox nation. These savages loved noth- 
ing better than the warpath ; and for many years their very 
name was a terror among the French settlers and traders 
in the region of the Great Lakes. They were so active in 
stirring up trouble, and in doing deeds of violence to their 
neighbors, both white and red, that they became known as 
the " Firebrands of the Northwest." At length, however, 

after a long struggle with the French, the tribe 
I '706 

was almost exterminated. The few warriors who 

remained alive, no longer felt themselves strong enough to 
stand alone among the unfriendly nations that surrounded 
them ; and so, leaving their ancestral homes, they joined 
themselves with the Sacs, a kindred tribe whose lands bor- 
dered both shores of the Mississippi. 

This occurred about the year 1736, when the Foxes 
numbered only two hundred or three hundred women and 
children, and perhaps sixty warriors. They settled in the 
neighborhood of Prairie du Chien on the Mississippi, and 
for a time were so quiet as to be almost forgotten. From 
that day the Sacs and Foxes were closely united, and they 

became, in fact, one and the same nation. The Foxes in- 

240 



The Sacs 241 

creased in numbers and in strength, and when Jonathan 

Carver visited their village in 1766, he found it second in 

importance only to the metropolis of the allies at Prairie 

du Sac. 

On the north bank of the Rock River, about a mile above 

its mouth, was the village of Saukenuk, destined soon to 

be the center and favorite home of the Sac and 

1767 
Fox nation. In the very year after Carver's visit 

to the Northwest, a child was born in this village, who was 
to become the last patriot red man to defend his country 
against the resistless tide of civilization. The name of 
this child was Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak, or Black Hawk. 
His great-grandfather was the mighty chief Thunder, who, 
a hundred years before, had led the Sac people from their 
old home near Montreal, and settled them in the rich valley 
of the Wisconsin. 

During his boyhood young Black Hawk distinguished 
himself by his skill in the use of the tomahawk and the bow 
and arrow, his ability to endure suffering without complaint, 
and his courage in the face of danger. He was only fif- 
teen when, with his father, he went on the warpath against 
the Osages, and took his first scalp. When he returned 
to Saukenuk, he was permitted to join the warriors in the 
scalp dance, in which they celebrated their victory. This 
was a great honor for a mere boy, and the heart of the 
young savage was filled with ambition to excel in the craft 
and deeds of war. Before he was a year older, he led a 
party of seven into the Osage country, and fearlessly at- 
tacked a band of the enemy ten times as numerous. This 
exploit gave him great fame among his people, and from 

CONQ. O.N.W. — 16 



2^2 TJic Last Struggle 

that day he was regarded as one of their bravest braves. 
When he was nineteen, his father was killed in battle, and 
Black Hawk ** fell heir to the medicine bag of his fore- 
fathers." He was now, although not a chief, one of the 
leading men of his nation ; and for fifty years his voice 
was the controlling one in the councils of the Sacs and 
Foxes. 

The lands claimed by the Sacs fronted on the Missis- 
sippi, and extended for hundreds of miles between the 
Illinois and the Wisconsin. The country to the north and 
south of Saukenuk abounded in game, and was the most 
beautiful region in all that section of the Northwest. Un- 
der the rule of Black Hawk the village became the chief 
center of the nation, and nearly all the Sacs made their 
homes there. The houses which they built were similar 
in many respects to those which the French found in the 
Huron villages of Canada, two hundred years before. The 
framework, which was of poles, was covered with sheets 
of elm bark held in place by thongs of buckskin. Each 
building was from thirty to one hundred feet in length, and 
from fifteen to forty feet in width. At each end was a 
narrow entrance, which was closed in rough weather by a 
heavy curtain' of buffalo hides. Inside, down the center, 
were as many firepits as there were families in the lodge ; 
while along the walls were ranges of rude sleejiing bunks 
made of elastic poles over which were thrown the skins of 
bears and other furry animals. 

The village itself was a populous and busy place, and at 
the time of Black Hawk's greatest power it is said to have 
contained nearly a thousand families. The men of this 



A Onesided Treaty 243 

savage community occupied themselves in hunting and in 
fighting their ancient enemies, the Osages and the Sioux, 
on the other side of the Mississippi. And in the rich bot- 
tom lands of the Rock River, the women raised large crops 
of corn, beans, and pumpkins, having at one time more 
than eight hundred acres under cultivation. A Httle be- 
low the village was Rock Island, in the Mississippi, a place 
especially beloved by the Indians. " It was our garden," 
says Black Hawk, " supplying us with strawberries, black- 
berries, gooseberries, plums, apples, and nuts of different 
kinds. Being situated at the foot of the rapids, its waters 
supplied us with the finest fish. In my early life I spent 
many happy days on this island. A good spirit had charge 
of it, which lived in a cave immediately under the place 
where the fort now stands. This guardian spirit has often 
been seen by our people. It was white, with large wings 
like a swan's, but ten times larger. We were particular 
not to make much noise in that part of the island which it 
inhabited, for fear of disturbing it. Bat the noise at the 
fort has since driven it away, and no doubt a bad spirit has 
taken its place." 

II. A ONE-SIDED TREATY 

The beauty and fertility of the Rock River Valley could 
not long remain hidden from the eyes of the American 
pioneers ; and to see that country was to covet its posses- 
sion. 

In 1804 a Sac warrior who was visiting St. Louis had a 
quarrel with an American backwoodsman and killed him. 



244 



TJie Last Struggle 



held in the village 



What was the cause of the quarrel, or from whom the 
provocation came, we shall never know, nor is it now impor- 
tant. The Sac was put in prison to await his trial, and his 
comrades carried the news to Saukenuk. A council was 
and by Black Hawk's advice it was 
determined to send four chiefs 
to St. Louis to see the Ameri- 
can commander there and do 
all they could to secure the 
release of the prisoner. They 
were to offer to pay for the 
person killed, thus satisfying, 
as they supposed, both his 
family and the law. " This," 
says Black Hawk, "was the 
only means with us of saving a 
person who had killed another 
— and we then thought it was 
the same way with the whites." 
The four chiefs departed 
with the good wishes of the 
whole nation. The relatives 
of the prisoner blacked their 
faces and fasted, hoping that 
the Great Spirit would take pity on them and return the 
husband and father to his wife and children. 

It was many weeks before the Sacs heard anything at 
all from their ambassadors. Every heart was beginning 
to be filled with uneasiness when one day it was reported 
that the four chiefs were encamped on the river bank a few 




" A Sac warrior had a quarrel 



A Oiic-sidcd Treaty 245 

miles below the village. Why did they not come directly 
home and report the success of their mission ? It was 
plain that they had no good news to bring. 

Early the next morning a council was called. The coun- 
cil lodge was crowded with warriors, and the four chiefs 
made their appearance. To the astonishment of all, they 
wore fine coats of American make, and had shining medals 
pinned to their breasts and dangling from their necks. 
After the customary smoking, their leader arose and gave 
an account of their adventures. He said that they had 
been kindly received by the American ** father " at St. 
Louis, and that when they had told him the object of their 
visit, he listened with interest to everything they said. 
Then he told them that the Americans wanted a small strip 
of land along the shore of the great river, in order that 
they might work the lead mines there ; and he promised that 
if the Sacs would sell it to them, he would be glad to do 
everything in his power to please them. With this, he gave 
them some fine presents, and plenty of whisky to drink. 
In the end, they consented to give him certain parts of 
their country both on the Mississippi and on the Illinois, 
and he agreed, on the part of the great father at Washing- 
ton, to pay the Sacs a thousand dollars a year for this con- 
cession. All this was set down in writing and signed with 
great ceremony. They supposed that now their friend 
would be set free ; but about the time they were ready to 
start home, they saw him taken out of prison and shot 
dead before their eyes. This, they said, was all they 
could remember. 

Such is the Indian side of the story of the treaty of 1804 



246 TJic Last Struggle 

at St. Louis, by which the American government obtained 
nearly all the lands of the Sacs and Foxes east of the Mis- 
sissippi. Black Hawk never acknowledged the validity 
of this treaty. '* I will leave it," said he, "to the people of 
the United States to say whether our nation was properly 
represented in this treaty, or whether we received a fair 
compensation for the extent of country ceded by these four 
individuals." 

The officers who made this hard bargain with the In- 
dians had inserted a clause in the treaty, which provided 
that the Sacs might continue to occupy their lands as they 
chose, so long as these lands were owned by the United 
States government. There can be but little doubt that 
this clause was intended to deceive the red men into a 
belief that they should always remain secure in their old 
homes ; but, be this as it may, it postponed the evil day 
for several years. The Sacs continued to hunt and fish, 
and to fight the Sioux as of yore ; the Rock River bottom 
produced its crops of corn and pumpkins, and Rock Island 
its fruits and nuts ; and the village of Saukenuk prospered 
and remained the most important Indian town in the 
Northwest. 

Black Hawk was never thoroughly pleased with the 
Americans, and the fact of the treaty ever having been 
made gave him great anxiety. He says : ** I had not dis- 
covered one good trait in the character of the Americans 
that came to the country. They made fair promises, but 
never fulfilled them. The English, however, made but 
few promises, and we can always rely on their word." 
This explains why, in the War of 18 12, he and his young 



The RiDioval 247 

men joined forces with tlie I^ritish. Throu<;h the greater 
part of that war l^lack Hawk was one of the most active 
among the Indian allies of Great l^ritain. He took ])art 
in several important battles, and moi-e than one American 
])risoner was saved by him from ruthless murder. It is 
said that he was in the great battle of the Thames and 
saw the death of the famous Tecumseh ; but of this there 
is serious reason for doubt. He seems to have foreseen the 
result of the war, and before it was fairly over he returned 
to Rock River. 

III. THE REMOVAL 

White squatters soon afterward began to come into the 
country. Although all the land belonged to the govern- 
ment, and none of it could yet be sold, these off- 

i8iti 
scourings of the older settlements set up their 

cabins where they chose, and selected the best lands in the 
river bottoms for their own. One day Black Hawk, while 
hunting in the neighborhood of a squatter's cabin, was set 
upon by three white men, who accused him of killing their 
hogs. He denied the accusation, but what of that .? The 
men took the flint out of his gun, and then gave him so 
severe a beating with sticks that he was lamed for several 
days. Imagine how such treatment as this would rankle 
in the heart of so proud a savage as Black Hawk. 

With each passing year the squatters came in greater 
and greater numbers. They encroached upon the Indians' 
fields, and fenced in large portions of the richest ground 
for themselves. They even tore down some of the huts in 
the village, and once when Black Hawk returned from a 



248 



TJic Last Struggle 



hunt, he found a family of squatters occupying his lodge. 
Nevertheless, in spite of all these provocations, Black 
Hawk kept the peace and restrained his warriors from 
violence. He repeatedly complained to the American 
commander at St. Louis, who promised to lay the matter 

before the great father at Wash- 
ington ; but the only reply was 
that the land had been bought 
by the white people, and the red 
people must give it up. 

The Sacs and Foxes were 
informed that lands had been 
provided for them on the west- 
ern side of the Mississippi, and 
the Indian agent at Saukenuk 
advised them to give up peace- 
ably and remove thither. Many 
of the Foxes about Prairie du 
Chien did this, and a Sac chief 
whose name was Keokuk per- 
suaded a large number of the 
Saukenuk Indians to join them 
on the reservation which the 
government had set apart for 
them in Iowa. 
Black Hawk refused to go. He had lived for more than 
fifty years in the Rock River country. It was the place of 
his birth. It had been the home of his father and grand- 
father, and there the bones of his ancestors were buried. 
He loved his country with its fair prairies, its wild woods, 




•■ A Sac chief whose name was 
Keokuk " 



The RluiovuI 249 

and its broad rivers ; and he was loath to f;ivc it up. With 
a number of his people, therefore, he remained on the east 
side of the river, and hoi)ed that at some time and in some 
way justiee would be done. 

Soon a rumor was set afloat that Black Hawk had threat- 
ened some of the squatters. This rumor was magnified 
into a report that the Sacs were preparing to make a raid 
upon the border settlements. Then it was declared that 
the savages had already begun the work of devastation. 
The whole country was alarmed. The militia of the state 
was called out, and General Gaines at the head of six com- 
panies of regulars took possession of Rock Island, where 
a fort had already been built. A council was called, and 

Black Hawk was summoned to attend. He came 

1831 
at the head of his warriors, all hideous with war 

paint and carrying their war clubs. Keokuk and Wapello, 

the Fox chief, were also there. General Gaines opened the 

council with a speech, explaining the object of his mission 

and ending by advising Black Hawk's followers to consult 

their own interests and go peaceably to the reservation 

across the river. 

Black Hawk then arose and declared that the Sacs had 
never sold their country, and that they were determined to 
hold on to their village. 

General Gaines, appearing to be very angry, here cried 
out : " Who is this Black Hawk .? Who is Black Hawk .? " 

Very straight and dignified, as became a brave warrior, 
the old Indian answered : — 

*' Black Hawk is a Sac! His forefathers were Sacs! 
All the nations know him to be a Sac ! " 



250 TJic Last Struggle 

" Very well," said Gaines, " I am here neither to beg nor 
to hire you to leave your village. My business is to remove 
you, peaceably if I can, but forcibly if I must. If within 
two days you are not all on the other side of the Missis- 
sippi, I will adopt measures to put you there by force." 

Black Hawk, flaming with anger, declared that he would 
never consent to leave his old home ; and the council broke 
up. 

On the morrow a number of Sacs, who were afraid to 
resist longer, crossed the river and joined Keokuk. Soon 
afterward a company of mounted soldiers and backwoods 
militia arrived in the neighborhood of Saukenuk and went 
into camp a short distance below the village. Black Hawk 
saw now that he must submit, and so as soon as night 
had come all his people embarked in canoes, and, bidding 
good-by to their old homes, paddled silently across the 
Mississippi. A few days later the militia marched into 
Saukenuk, set fire to the lodges, and watched the once 
famous village of the Sacs disappear in flames. 

IV. BLACK HAWKVS WAR 

On the last day of June a new treaty was made by 

which Black Hawk and the Sac chiefs agreed to remain 

on the reservation west of the river, and never to 
1831 

cross to the east side without the consent of the 

President of the United States. The government, on its 

part, agreed to give them corn in place of that which had 

been left growing in the fields, and promised to help them 

open their new farms on the reservation. With this Black 



Black Hawk's War 251 

Hawk seemed to be satisfied, and all mi<^ht have ^^one well 

had he been able to f()r<;et the old home from which he 

had been driven. 

A short time after this, a lying Indian, whom Black 

Hawk had sent on a mission to Canada, returned to the 

Sac settlement and reported that the l^ritish 

. 1832 

commander at Maiden had told him that the 

Americans could not force the Sacs to leave their lands. 
*' He said, also, that in the event of war we should have 
nothing to fear; for the British father would stand by us 
and aid us." Much else of the same sort did this mis- 
chief maker report, to the effect that the Ottawas, the 
Chippewas, and the Pottawattomies were all ready to join 
the Sacs in opposition to the United States. 

All this filled the mind of Black Hawk with a new hope, 
which was strengthened by a promise from White Cloud, 
the prophet of the Winnebagoes, that he should have the 
help of that nation also. " For myself," says he, '* I was 
growing old, and was willing to spend the rest of my days 
anywhere. But I wished, above all, to see my people happy. 
This had always been my constant aim ; and I now began 
to hope that our sky would soon be clear." 

He laid the matter before Keokuk and Wapello, but 
they told him that he had been deceived by liars, and 
advised him to abide by the new treaty. He then 
determined to take matters into his own hand. In the 
following spring he astonished the Illinois militia by 
suddenly appearing in the Rock River Valley with all 
the warriors and women and children that would follow 
him. It is by no means certain what Black Hawk in- 



252 The Last Struggle 

tended to do, and the fact of his taking the women 
and children with him would seem to indicate that he 
did not mean war. He had been invited by White Cloud 
to spend the summer among the Winnebagoes and plant 
corn there, and it is not unlikely that he intended to 
go into Wisconsin in response to this invitation. Never- 
theless he had violated his agreement not to cross the 
Mississippi ; the whole country was alarmed, and there 
were rumors of a general Indian uprising. All the out- 
rages committed on the settlers by straggling Winneba- 
goes and Kickapoos were ascribed to Black Hawk, and 
there was a call from all quarters for protection by 
the United States government. 

Black Hawk, when he learned of the alarm he was 
causing, at first defied the American government, and 
boasted of the trouble he would cause. Then realizing 
the mistake he had made, and despairing of reaching 
the Winnebagoes, or of being aided by the British or 
any of the lake tribes, he sent a flag of truce to Major 
Stillman, the commander of a body of militia that was 
in close pursuit of his band. The major, instead of re- 
specting the flag, made prisoners of its bearers and soon 
afterward sent a detachment of soldiers to attack a 
small body of Sacs that were seen in the distance. The 
Sacs were routed, and two of their number slain ; and the 
militiamen, wild with thoughts of victory, gave chase to 
the remainder. Black Hawk, who was at supper in the 
woods near by, heard the clamor and hastily summoned 
his warriors, of whom he had scarcely two hundred. As 
the militiamen rushed heedlessly and without order through 



Black Hawk's War 253 

the shadowy woods, their ardor was suddenly cooled at 
sight of scores of swarthy savages rising up suddenly 
from the thickets and giving vent to the dreadful war 
whoop. They turned and ran for life, scarcely thinking 
of resistance. Black Hawk's warriors followed them, 
killing some, and filling the rest with such a panic of fear 
that they did not stop until they were safe behind doors 
at Dixon, twenty-five miles away. 

Elated by this victory, many of Black Hawk's followers 
went out in small parties, contrary to his orders, and 
began to harry the outlying settlements. Many a deed 
of blood was committed, and the alarm of the country 
was increased by exaggerated accounts of the strength 
of the savage forces and of the widespread devastation 
they were causing. 

But why follow the details of this painful story } After 
the defeat of Stillman's militiamen. Black Hawk's little 
army was vigorously pursued by strong forces of United 
States troops. Several times they were overtaken, and 
in the fights that followed were sorely defeated. At last, 
hemmed in and despairing, Black Hawk decided to seek 
safety for himself and people by recrossing the Missis- 
sippi. The weary and discouraged Indians were overtaken 
at Bad Axe in Wisconsin, just as they were preparing to 
go over the river. They were surrounded, and, although 
they offered to surrender, an indiscriminate slaughter of 
men, women, and children was begun. Many of the 
women threw themselves into the stream, and with their 
children on their backs attempted to swim to the opposite 
shore. Others embarked on rude rafts or in leaky 



2 54 ^-^^^ Last Struggle 

canoes, and made all haste to escape. Vainly did Black 
Hawk and his braves stand their ground and attempt to 
cover the flight of the helpless fugitives. A white man 
who was present at this slaughter says : " When the 
Indians were driven to the bank of the Mississippi, some 
hundreds of men, women, and children plunged into the 
river, and hoped by diving to escape the bullets of our 
guns. Very few, however, escaped our sharpshooters ; 
and those who did reach the western bank of the river 
werQ butchered in cold blood by a party of Sioux, their 
hereditary enemies, who had been brought there for that 
purpose by the Federal officers." 

Black Hawk and a few of his men made their way 
through the lines of attacking soldiers, and escaped into 
the woods ; but a few days later the chief was discovered 
by some Winnebagoes, who delivered him to the Americans. 
After being kept in prison at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, 
for several months, he was taken to Washington, where he 
had a conference with President Jackson. 

The President asked him why he had gone to war with 
the American people. He answered in true Indian fash- 
ion in a little speech which showed that although he had 
been defeated, his spirit was not crushed. " I am a man," 
he said, '* and you are another. I did not expect to con- 
quer the white people. I took up the hatchet to avenge 
injuries which could no longer be borne. Had I borne 
them longer, my people would have said, * Black Hawk is 
a squaw ; he is too old to be a chief; he is no Sac' This 
caused me to raise the war whoop. I say no more of it. 
All is known to you." 



Black Hawk's War 



^SS 



After being exhibited in the eastern cities, he was 
allowed to return to the remnant of his people in Iowa, 
among whom he lived until his death in October, 1838. 

The Black Hawk War was the last effort made by the 
Indians of the Old Northwest to retain their ancestral 




" ' I am a man, and you are another ' " 

hunting grounds. Henceforth the country was to have 
peace, and the development of its resources was to proceed 
without hindrance from barbarous natives or alien foes. 
Its conquest was complete. 

Many years ago the Hon. William H. Seward, in a 
speech before a western audience, ventured to predict that 
'' power would not much longer linger on the narrow strip 
between the Atlantic and the slopes of the Alleghanies ; 



256 The Last Stn/o-cr/e 

but the commanding field would soon be in the upper 
Mississippi Valley, whence men and institutions would 
speak and communicate their will to the nation and the 
world." It has been reserved for people now living to 
see the fulfillment of this prediction. 



INDEX 



ALBAJSTY, N.Y., 21,22. 

Alleghany Mountains, 12, 13, 26,69; first 

road over, 79. 
Allegheny River, 14, 48. 
Andastes, 52. See Erie Indians. 
Annian, Straits of, 126. 
Arkansas River, 33. 
Assiniboine River, 67, 68. 

Bad Axe, Wisconsin, 253. 

" Baker's Bottom," 136. 

Bancroft quoted, 124. 

Beaujeu, French officer at the defeat of 
Braddock, 85-89. 

Belle Isle, 96. 

Berkeley, Governor, of Virginia, 26. 

Bienville, Le Moyne de, 28. 

Biloxi, Mississippi, 28. 

Black Hawk, Sac warrior, 241-243 ; in 
War of 1812, 246, 247; embittered 
against the Americans, 247, 248 ; his 
war, 250-254 ; in captivity, 255. 

Boisbriant, Pierre Dugue, 35, 

Bonnecamp, Father, 49, 56. 

Boone. Daniel, 150. 

Bouquet, Colonel, British officer, 91, 99, 
116-119. 

Bowman, Colonel, captures Cahokia, 
161. 

Braddock, Edward, British general, 86- 
90. 

Bradstreet, Colonel, 116. 

British posts on Wabash and Missis- 
sippi, 148. 

Brougham, Lord, quoted, 182. 

Buade River, 15. See Mississippi. 

CONcj. O.N.W. — 17 2 



Cabot, John, discovers North America, 

25. 30- 

Cadillac, La Motte, 24. 

Cahokia, in the Illinois Country, 17, 161, 
170, 214. 

Campbell, Captain, at Detroit, 96. 

Canada, 13, 14; surrendered to the 
English, 92. 

Captina Creek, 135. 

Carlisle, Penn., council at, 71. 

Carolina, 28, 30. 

Carver, Jonathan, travels in the North- 
west, 125-131, 241. 

Celoron, Bienville de, 48-58, 68, 70, 
198. 

Charles II., 211. 

Chicago, 25, 207, 215. 

Chickasaw Indians, 29, 40, 226. 

Chillicothe, capital of Northwest Terri- 
tory, 214. 

Chininque, 52. See Logstown. 

Chipkawkay, 40. See I'incennes. 

Chippewa Indians, 85, 96, 98, 100-107, 
114, 166, 1.82, 207. 

Cincinnati, 44; settlement of, 193. 

Clark, George Rogers, birth, 150; in 
Lord Dunmore's war, 142; great task 
to be performed, 149; in Kentucky, 
151-153; receives colonel's commis- 
sion, 153; heads expedition to the 
Northwest, 154-156; captures Kaskas- 
kia, 156-162; in the Illinois Country, 
164; wins Vincennes from the British, 
170-178 ; receives grant of land from 
Virginia, 297, 214. 

Cleaveland, General Moses, 211. 

57 



258 



Index 



Cleveland, Ohio, 92, 117; founding of, 

211. 
Colbert River, 15. See Mississippi, 
Connecticut, claims a portion of the 

Northwest, 180, 181, 209; surrenders 

all claims to the United States, 211, 

212. 
Contrecoeur, French Commandant at 

Fort Duquesne, 83, 89. 
Corn Island, 156. 

Cornstalk, Shawnee chief, 139, 140. 
Coxe, Daniel, 29. 
Cresap, Michael, 135, 142. 
Croghan, George, 61,63, 70, 121, 123, 124. 
Cutler, Manasseh, 187. 
Cuyahoga River, 206, 211. 

Dalzell, Captain, at Detroit, 115. 

Dane, Nathan, 183, 

Delaware Indians, 51, 52, 62, 85, 86, 116, 

118, 182. 
Delaware, state of, opposes claims of 

larger states, 180. 
Detroit, 17, 24, 41, 58, 63, 92, 94-98, 123. 

148; surrendered to the English, 95; 

besieged by Pontiac, 98, 107-116; 

Indian raids from, 152, 165; General 

Hamilton at, 165; held by British, 

196, 203, 206; surrendered to the 

United States, 208. 
Dinwiddle, Robert, governor of Virginia, 

74. 79. 
Dixon, Illinois, 253. 
Drake, Sir Francis, 126. 
Dunmore, Lord, governor of Virginia, 

134, 138 ; his war, 139-144. 
Duquesne, Fort. See Fort Duqiiesne. 
Duquesne, Governor, of Canada, 71, 75, 

79. 
Dutch-English traders, 21, 24. 

Ellskevatawa, the " Prophet," 218. 

See Prophet. 
English colonies, 11, 13, 25, 30, 78; fur 

traders, 21, 41, 48, 53, 56, 60, 62, 69, 

146. 
English Turn, 28. 
Erie Indians, 23. 
Erie, Lake. See Lake Erie. 



Etherington, Captain, English ofificer at 
Mackinac, 100, 126. 

Fallen Timbers, Battle of, 203, 217. 

Fiison, John, 193. 

" P'ire Lands," 210. 

Forbes, General, British officer, 91. 

Fort Chartres, 35, 41, 122, 124, 161. 

Fort Duquesne, 79, 80, 83-91. See Fort 

Pitt. 
Fort Edward Augustus, 126, 127. 
Fort Gore, 139. 
F"ort Greenville, 203, 205. 
Fort Hamilton, 201. 
Fort Harmar, 190. 
Fort Harrison, 223, 226. 
P^ort Jefferson, 201, 202, 203. 
Fort la Bale, 32, 126. 
Fort le BcBuf, 69-75. 
Fort Massac, 45-47, 157, 215. 
Fort Necessity, 82. 
Fort Niagara, 32. 
Fort Patrick Henry, 177. 
Fort Pitt, named by General Forbes, 91 ; 

besieged by Indians, 99; 116, 119,121, 

139, 154, 165. 
Fort Sackville, 162. 
P'ort Washington, 193, 198, 199, 200. 
Fort Wayne, 58, 96, 199; built, 296, 214; 

treaty of, 216. See Kekionga. 
Fox Indians, L28, 240, 241, 248. 
Fox River, 127. 
Franklin, Benjamin, commissioner to 

treat with Indians, 71; not listened to 

by General Braddock, 86. 
Fraser, English trader, 70, 78. 
French Creek, 16, 69. 
French, discoveries in North America, 

12; settlements in Illinois, 17, 35; 

precautions, 32, 69; posts in Illinois 

and on the Wabash, 119, 145, 146, 

195 ; settlers on Green Bay, 127 ; in 

Canada, 145. 
Fur Trade, 17-23, 33. 48, 53, 197, 215. 

Gage, General. British military com- 
mander in the Northwest, 146, 
Gaines, General. American officer, 249. 
Gibault, Father, 160, 161, 163, 172, 196. 



Inde: 



259 



Gist, Christopher, 59-64, 70, 76, 77, 
80. 

Gladwyn, Major, commander at Detroit, 
96, 1 08- 1 16. 

Gorell, Lieutenant, at Green Bay, 126. 

" Grand Door to the Wabash," 163. 

Grayson, William, 183. 

Greathouse, Daniel, border ruffian, 136, 
142. 

Great Kenawha River, 26. See Kenawha. 

Great Meadows, 80, 82, 83. 

Great Miami River, 56-58. 192. 

Green Bay, 32, 68, 95, 126, 215. 

Greenville, Ohio, 205, See Fort Green- 
ville. 

Half-King, a Mingo chief, 80. 

" Hair-buyer General," 165. See Ham- 
ilton, General. 

Hamilton, General, lieutenant-governor 
of Canada, 148 ; recaptures Vincennes, 
165-170 ; surrenders the post to Ameri- 
cans, 170-176; prisoner of war, 177, 
178. 

*' Hannibal of the Northwest," 150. See 
Clark, George Rogers. 

Harmar, General, 197-199, 217. 

Harris, Mary, captured by Indians, 62. 

Harrison, William Henry, first governor 
of Indiana Territory, 214, 216; deal- 
ings with the Indians, 218; with Te- 
cumseh, 219-226. 

Helm, Captain Leonard, 162, 163, 168- 
170, 177. 

Henry, Alexander, English trader at 
Mackinac, 100-107. 

Henry, Patrick, governor of Virginia, 

151. 153- 
Hockhocking River, 139. 
Hudson Bay, 129. 
Hudson's Bay Company, 21. 
Hundred Associates, The, 18. 
Huron Indians, 24, 60, 85, no. 

Illinois Country, French settlements 
i". 17.33. 145. 153'- conquest of, 156- 
178. 

Illinois, county of, 165. 

Illinois, state, 229. 



Intliana, state, 229. 

Indiana, territory of, 213-229. 

Iroquois Indians, friendly to English, 21; 
hunting grounds of, 23,44; and Jon- 
caire, 43; friendly to French, 70; in 
Pontiac's league, 98; make treaties 
with New York and Pennsylvania. 147, 
180; make treaty with the United 
States, 182. 

Isle au Cochon (Belle Isle), 95. 

Jackson, Andrew, 254. 

James I., charter to Virginia, 25, 180. 

James River, 27. 

Jefferson, Thomas, his version of Logan's 

speech, 141; aids in framing the great 

Ordinance, 183. 
Jesuits, 32, 33, 166. 
Johnson, Sir William, 115, 121, 124. 
Joliet, Louis, 38, 127. 
)oncaire, Joseph, 43-45. 
Joncaire, the younger, 48, 50, 52, 54, 70, 

11- 
Juchereau, French officer, 32. 
Jumonville, P'rench captain, 81. 

Kaskaskia, 17, 34, 35, 154, 214 ; capture 
of, by Americans, 156-162; Colonel 
Clark at, 171. 

Kekionga, 37, 39, 40, 57. 

Kenawha River, 26, 134, 139, 154. 

Kenton, Simon, 142. 

Kentucky, 148, 150-152, 154. 

Keokuk, Sac chief, 248, 251. 

Kickapoo Indians, 121, 200. 

" Knights of the Golden Horseshoe," 
27. 

La Belle Riviere, 14, 49. See Ohio 

River. 
La Demoiselle, 57. See Old Britain. 
Lafayette, Indiana, 39, 219. 
Lake Erie, 16, 23, 49, 52, 92. 
Lake Michigan, 66. 
Lake Ontario, 25. 
Lake Pepin, 66, 67, 128. 
Lake Superior, 15. 
Lake Winnebago, 127. 
Lake of the Woods, 179. 



26o 



Index 



Langlade, Charles, at Fort Duquesne, 58 ; 
at Mackinac, 104. 

L'Aibre Croche, 127. 

La Salle, Sieur de, 52, 92, 125. 

Lee, Richard Henry, 183. 

Le Mai, trader at Chicago, 215, 216. 

Lewis, Colonel, in Lord Dunmore's 
war, 139. 

Lexington, Battle of, 146. 

Licking River, 65, 193. 

Little River, source of Wabash, 167, 168. 

Little Turtle, Miami chief, 201, 206. 

Logan, John, Iroquois chief, 132; chosen 
chief of Mingoes, 133; his family mur- 
dered, 136-138; his famous speech, 
141 ; his death, 143. 

Logansport, Indiana, 200. 

Logstown, 52, 60. 

" Long Knives," 152-156, 163. 

Loramie Creek, 57. 

Losantiville, 192. See Cincinnati. 

Louis XIV., 15, 28, 183. 

Louis XV., 48, 50. 

Louisiana, 13, 14, 47. 

Louisville, Kentucky, 155. 

Mackinac, 17, 96, 116, 126, 207; mas- 
sacre at, 99-107. 
Mackinac Island, 107, 206. 
Magna Charta of the Northwest, 182-186. 
Margane, Francois, 39. See Vincennes. 
Marietta, Ohio, first American settlement 

in the Old Northwest, 190-192, 213, 

230. 
Marin, French officer, 68, 69, 70, 71. 
Marquette, Father, on Fox River, 127; 

at Chicago, 215. 
Maryland, opposes claims of larger 

states, 180. 
Mascoutin Indians, 121. 
Massac, Fort. See Fort Massac. 
Massac, M., 46. 
Massachusetts, claims a portion of the 

Northwest, 180. 
Maumee City, 203. 
Maumee River, portage, 37, 39, 57, 96, 

123, 166-168, 199, 204, 207. 
Mayjlower, emigrant boat on the Ohio, 

189. 



Maysville, Ohio, 193. 

Mermet, Father, 33. 

Miami Indians, 32, 35, 37, 40, 56, 57, 63, 

198, 216. 
Miami-of-the-Lakes, 58. See Maumee. 
Miami River, 57. See Great Miami. 
Michigan, 38, 181 ; a state, 229. 
Mille Lacs, 15. 

Minavavana, Indian chief, 105. 
Mingo Indians, 52, 80, 85, 133, 136. 
Minneapolis, Minnesota, 128. 
Mississippi River, 15, 28, 33, 35, 65, 125, 

130, 228. 
Missouri River, 15, 68. 
Mobile, 36. 
Monongahela River, 69, 78, 79, 87, 89, 

138, 154, 188. 
Montagues des Roches, 68, See Rocky 

Mountains. 
Montour, Andrew, "the dandy of the 

wilderness," 61, 62, 63. 
Montreal, surrendered to the English, 92. 
Muskingum River, 53, 60, 116-119, 187, 

189. 

Napoleon of the Wilderness, 92- 
98. See Pontiac. 

" New Connecticut," 210. 

New France, extent, 13; surrendered to 
the English, 92; England in full pos- 
session, 124. 

New Jersey, opposes claims of larger 
states, 180; emigrants from, settle in 
Ohio, 192. 

New Orleans, 28, 145, 164, 228. 

New River, 65. 

New York, colony of, 22, 24, 78, 147. 

New York, state of, claims a portion of 
the Northwest, 180. 

Nicolet, Jean, 65, 100, 125. 

Ohio Company (first), 53, 59, 65, 78, 

79- 
Ohio Company (second), 187. 
Ohio River, 14, 33, 43, 48-56, 121, 124, 

133, 154-157, 188, 213 ; first steamboat 

on, 228. 
Ohio, state, 229. 
Old Britain, a Miami chief, 57, 63. 



Index 



261 



Old Chillicothc, 139. 

Old Northwest, boundary and extent, 12, 
14, 16; claimed by the Iroquois, 25; 
French outposts in, 32,66; first roati 
into, 80; surrendered to the linglish, 
92; scene of I'oiitiac's conspiracy, 99; 
won by England, 124; eft'ects on, ot 
Lord Dunmore's war, 143; declared 
to be a part of Canada, 146; Indian 
hunting grounds, 147; Americans 
claim it by right of conquest, 179; 
united in one government, 181; the 
great Ordinance provided for its 
government, 182-187; United States 
in full possession of, 212; divided into 
two territories, 213; a harbinger of 
prosperity, 228 ; the pioneers, 230-239 ; 
last struggle for possession, 240-254. 

"Onontio," Indian name for the governor 
of Canada, 44, 52. 

Ordinance for the government of the 
Northwest, 182-186. 

" Origan," a westward-flowing river de- 
scribed by Carver, 130. 

Orleans, first steamboat on the Ohio, 
228. 

Osage Indians, 241, 242, 

Oswego, N.Y., 32, 124. 

Ottawa Indians, 24, 63, 85, 94, 100, no, 
114, 166, 182. 

Ottawa River, 127. 

Oudiette, French officer, 19, 20. 

Ouiatenon, 39, 112, 113, 168. 

Pacific Ocean, dreams of a waterway 
to, 26, 66, 125, 129, 130. 

Pennsylvania, 71, 78, 138, 147. 

Pennsylvania traders, 53, 60, 133, 138. 

Piankeshaw Indians, 40, 163. 

Pickawillany, 57, 62. 

Pioneers, the, 230-240. 

Pique Town, 57. See Pickawillany. 

Pittsburg, 51, 69, 78, 188, 228. 

Point de Saible, Jean Baptiste, first in- 
habitant of Chicago, 215. 

Point Pleasant, battle of, 139. 

Pontiac, Indian chief, at Fort Duquesne, 
85, 94; meets Major Rogers, 93; his 
home, 95; arouses the Indian tribes, 



96, 97 ; leader of a great conspiracy, 
88, 102, 217; besieges Detroit, 107- 
116; in the Wabash country, 119-123; 
his last public speech, 124. 

I'otier, Father, at Detroit, 166. 

l^otomac River, 79, 86. 

Pottawattomies, 85, 95, 108, 114, 166, 

215- 
Prairie du Chien, 128, 240, 248. 
Prairie du Sac, 128, 241. 
Presque Isle, 69, 70, 92, 99. See Erie. 
Prophet, the, Shawnee Indian, brother 

of 'Iccumseh, 218, 221-227. 
Putnam, Rufus, 189. 

Raisin River, 206. 

Redstone, Old Fort, 154. 

Ribaut, 30. 

Nocheblave, French officer in command 

at Kaskaskia, 158. 
Rock Island, 243, 246, 249. 
Rock River, 241, 242, 246. 
Rocky Mountains, discovered by Veren- 

drye, 68; described by Carver, 130. 
Rogers, Major Robert, 92, 93. 

Sac Indians, 102, 128, 240-255. See 
Black Hawk. 

St. Ange, French officer, at Fort Du- 
quesne, 85. 

St. Anthony's Falls, 15, 131. 

St. Clair, Anthony, first governor of 
Northwest Territory, 191, 214; at Cin- 
cinnati, 194; visits the French settlers 
at Kaskaskia, 196; his disastrous 
Indian campaign, 200-203, 209, 217. 

St. Clair Strait, 16. 

St. Croix River, 15. 

St. Francis River, 128. 

St. Francis Xavier, Mission of, 32, 
126. 

St. Genevieve, 145. 

St. Ignace, Pomt, 99. 

St. Joseph River, Michigan, 37, 38, 98. 

St. Lawrence River, 128. 

St. Louis, 145, 157, 171, 243, 244. 

St, Mary's River, 16. 

St. Paul, Minnesota, 128. 

St. Philip River. See Missouri. 



262 



Indcj 



St. Pierre, Legardeur de, 66-75, 128, 130. 
Saskatchewan River, 68. 
Saukenuk, Sac village, 241, 242, 246. 
Sauit Sainte Marie, 17, 96, 116. 
Schools in the Old Northwest, 184, 185. 
Scioto River, 54, 62, 64, 121, 139, 140, 142, 

187. 
Seneca Indians, 43. See Iroquois. 
Seward, William H., quoted, 255. 
Shawnee Indians, 23, 40, 52, 54, 85, 

116, 121, 134, 135, 139, 216, 217. 
Shenandoah River, 27. 
Sioux Indians, 68, 128, 129, 130, 254. 
Slavery forbidden in the Northwest, 

183. 
South Bend, Indiana, 32. 
Spain secures the country west of the 

Mississippi, 145. 
Spotswood, Sir Alexander, governor of 

Virginia, 27. 
Steamboat, first, on Ohio, 228. 
Steubenville, Ohio, 133. 
Stillman, Major, 252, 253. 
Stirling, John, typical pioneer, 234-239. 
Stirling, Captain Thomas, 124. 
Symmes, John Cleves, 192. 

Tah-gah-jute, 132. See Logan. 

Tecumseh, 217-228, 247. 

Terre Haute, Indiana, 164, 223. 

Thames River, Canada, battle, 227, 247. 

Thunder, Sac chief, 241. 

Thunder Bay, 105. 

Tippecanoe River, 200, 219 ; battle of, 

221-226. 
Todd, Colonel John, first governor of 

Illinois, 165. 
Toledo, Ohio, 167. 
Turtle Heart, Indian chief, 118. 
Tuscarawas River, 117, 206. 
Twightwees, 37, 112, 122. See Miami 

Indians. 

Vaudreuil, Marquis de, surrenders 

Montreal, 92. 
Venango, 70, 76, 77. 
Verendrye, Sieur de, explores the far 

West, 67-69, 130. 
Verrazano, 30. 



Vigo, Fran9ois, Spanish trader, aids in 
the conquest of the Northwest, 164, 
171. 

Villieis. Chevalier de, at Fort Necessity, 
81-83. 

Vincennes, Fran9ois Margane, Sieur de, 

39. 45- 
Vincennes, post and village, 39, 112, 145, 

153; captured by Americans, 162-178; 

capital of Indiana Territory, 214, 219, 

220. 
Vincennes, Sieur de, 39, 57, 
Virginia, colony of, 25, 138, 147, 150, 
Virginia, state of, claims the Northwest, 

179- 181. 
Virginians, 72, 78, 89, 139; capture Kas- 

kaskia, 156-162. 

Wabash Country, 119, 121, 146, 199. 

Wabash River, 37, 39, 45, 98, 121, 123, 
168. 

Wapello, Fox chief, 249, 251. 

Washington, George, a messenger to 
St. Pierre, 72-75 ; his return through 
the wilderness, 76; leads Virginia 
militia across the Alleghanies, 80; at 
Fort Necessity, 81 ; with Braddock, 
89; takes possession Fort Duquesne, 
91 ; pleased with Wilkinson's raid, 
200. 

Washington County, Ohio, 191. 

Wayne, General Anthony, campaign 
against the Indians, 203-205; treaty at 
Greenville, 206. 

Wawatam, Chippewa chief, loi, 107. 

Wea, 168. See Ouiatenon. 

Webster, Daniel, 182. 

Wenniway, Chippewa chief, 104. 

Western Reserve, 181, 209-211, 213. 

Wheeling, 135. 

White Cloud, Winnebago chief, 251, 
252. 

White Woman's Creek, 62. 

Wilkinson, General, his raid into the 
Wabash country, 199. 

Williamsburg, Virginia, 27, 151, 153, 
177. 

Willing, The, first American gunboat, 
172, 177. 



Index 



263 



Winnebago Indians, 127, 252, 254. 
Wisconsin, 131, 229, 240. See Carver, 

Jonathan. 
Wisconsin River, 15, 128. 
Wyandot Indians, 60, 62, 95, 98, 114. 

182. See Huron Indians. 



Yankek Traveler, a, 125-131. See 

Carver, Jonathan. 
Youghiogheny River, 80, 188. 

Zane, Coi.onei,, founder of Wheeling, 
on the Ohio, 135. 



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